


Whisper of a Fox 狐の囁 - A Morgan Takashima Novella

by norsko



Series: Takashima Series [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Demons, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Kitsune, Magic, Supernatural Elements, Vampires, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 01:52:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8778403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/norsko/pseuds/norsko
Summary: Now, listen.It wasn’t my choice that any of this happened— I feel like I’m obligated to tell you that. Call it a disclaimer, whatever. I didn’t choose this. At all. In any way possible; I didn’t come to the conscious decision of any of this taking place.Got that?                        Good. Now let me tell you about the time my aunts decided to get married.





	1. Let's Get This Out of the Way: They're Not Related

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, welcome again, to the second story in the Takashima Series, this time set in the middle of Chrysalis!
> 
> Now, I'm gonna warn you its written in first-person, which I've come to understand some people absolutely loathe, understandably. I had fun writing it, but in retrospect, could have done a lot better (like the first novel, it was written when I was just starting out, so please be patient with me)
> 
> Anyway, if you can tolerate the story's shortcomings and enjoy it for what it is, I'll be glad
> 
> Enjoy!

****

  Had you there for a second, didn’t I?

Don’t worry; they’re not related. My aunt from my dad’s side of the family and my aunt from my mom’s side of the family had just recently got engaged. I know right? Small world.

  Well, technically, the world I live in isn’t small at all, and is actually kind of just a little bit in outer space, but that isn’t important right now. What you need to know, I guess, is that I live in a place called Jotai City, a world separated from the Earth you’re (probably?) from, and connected by these inter-dimensional portal thingies— you know what? Not important. Someone smarter than me can explain it to you.

  The aunt on my dad’s side, Sera, is from Earth, y’see, so travelling from there to here is kind of a big deal. Especially since she’s planning on marrying my aunt on my mom’s side, Chieko, who lives in Lyn City— another little town some distance away from the great walls of my home. At least, I think she lives there; dad’s pretty sketchy when it comes to mom’s side of the family. Can’t really blame him; he’s been that way ever since mom died when I was a kid, and I just learned to never bring it up.

  I don’t have a clue how the two of them met, or even how they formed a relationship seeing as how they lived in literally separate dimensions and stuff—can you imagine the long-distance charges?— but y’know what, good for them.

 

  So my dad comes up to me one day, completely out of the blue and says:

    “Hey, Morgan,”

    “Hmm?” I answered eloquently, a mug blocking my mouth. I was standing in my pyjamas in the kitchen of my floor. It was the middle of the afternoon, sure, but I’m nocturnal, okay? More on that later.

  My dad was, the first time you look at him, a pretty average-looking guy. Ashen-blond hair and emerald-green eyes with just the beginning of wrinkles spelled out a stern but forgiving face. He wouldn’t be seen outside of his penthouse without wearing a suit— in fact, I don’t think _I’ve_ ever seen him wear anything else. In all, though, he comes across as the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to mess with.

Being a gang-boss had that effect on people.

    “Your aunts Sera and Chieko are coming… to visit.”

  I thought it was pretty odd that the two of them were coming at the same time, but didn’t say anything. I nodded instead, shrugging a little as if to say ‘So?’

    “Well, son,” he only used ‘son’ when he was under stress, or in a bad mood. I felt instantly uneasy. “The thing is… There’s no easy way to say this, but they’re getting married.”

  What?

  I spat out my drink in the most comical fashion you could possibly imagine. I’d seen people do it all the time in movies, but _never_ did I think I’d find myself doing it. A fountain of red stained across the marble kitchen counter and over the floors, even down my shirt. Not that I was thinking about the mess.

    “ _What?”_ I managed to stammer as blood dribbled down my chin. I’d very nearly knocked my glasses off.

  Pause. Okay, before he explains, I suppose _I_ should just put this out there— I’m a vampire. Technically, I’m known as a _Vorvintti,_ a first-ancestor, but it’s somehow worse being associated to _them_ than anything else embarrassing. 1) Sunlight doesn’t burn, but it’s too bright so it can suck my ass, 2) yes, I wear glasses; those aren’t for show; I’m very blind, 3) I drink blood. Duh. It’s awful and I hate it but I try not to think about it, so don’t remind me and 4) I was turned very recently, like five months ago, so I don’t know much of my own limits and stuff like that. There are plenty of other vampire species in Jotai, mind you; take what I say with a grain of salt. Not everyone is like me, or the _Vorvintti_ for that matter. That settled? Good. Continue.

 

    “That’s what I said,” dad continued. “They’re getting married, and they’re coming _here_ to—”

    _“Celebrate…?!”_ I asked in a horrified whisper.

    “No, thank god. I guess just to spread the good news, see us before the wedding, things like that.” He grabbed the roll of paper towels from the counter and helped me mop up the blood. His Irish accent was getting thicker, a good indicator of how stressed he was. It was something I did sometimes, though I don’t ever remember doing it; I’ve only gotten second-hand accounts from the people around me.

    “Okay… That isn’t so bad, I guess…”

    “Yes. The thing is, though…”

  I frowned.

    “The thing is, they’re coming tonight—”

    “ _What?!”_

    “—And’ll be here any minute—”

    _“Why are you telling me this now?!”_ Throwing the dirty towels in the trash and _very_ gently setting the mug down into the sink, I ran back into my bedroom. I could hear dad following close behind. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?!” I asked while scavenging through clothes in my closet.

    “You were asleep, son. Plus with everything going on I didn’t want to bother you—”

    _“Didn’t want—”_  I hastily lowered my voice. Dad wasn’t the kind of person you raised your voice to; not if you valued your life, anyway. “But this seems like a big deal, dad. You could’ve told me any time yesterday or…”

    “I didn’t _know_ yesterday, Morgan. Anyway, they only contacted me this morning. A suit, son; formal attire.”

  My frustration seemed to unsettle him enough to suggest what to wear. Of course it was a suit, dad’s favourite. Personally I couldn’t stand the things, not because of some stupid reason like I didn’t like being rich or seen as my dad’s son or anything, just that I was tortured and killed whilst wearing one so... You can kind of understand my reluctance.

    “Not the red shirt…” dad said in all but a whisper. I could appreciate this; it was the one I was turned in, after all. I opted instead for just the normal white. Note to self: no blood for a while. I don’t know _how_ girls do it, but getting blood stains out of things is practically impossible, and I consider it black magic if you have the ability to do so.

    “Does Erin know?”

    “Yes, of course. Told him just after I got the call.”

  Erin is my younger brother; about twelve-years-old, so seven years younger than me, and the sweetest little soul you could imagine. So nothing like me, then.

  I nodded, gathering up my clothes and going to the bathroom.

    “Entrance hall,” dad said briskly, already turning toward the bedroom door. “You have half an hour.”

 

 

  Precisely half an hour later, I was standing in the entrance hall, two levels below mine.

 I hate explaining my house to people because, well, it isn’t technically a house. We—that is to say, me, my dad, my brother and, oh, just dad’s entire gang—live on the top-most six floors of this massive sky scraper-like set of apartments in downtown 21st precinct. Me, Erin and dad have our own floors (yes, _I know)_ whilst the rest of the dad’s gang, a.k.a. the _Akatsuki_ live on the three floors below. You don’t want to know the kind of shit dad had to pull to get this place. Was it legal? Absolutely fucking not.

  I was standing on dad’s left, Erin on dad’s right, and we were just waiting for my aunts to arrive, Erin shuffling nervously from foot to foot. The entrance hall isn’t anything fancy; imagine a casino foyer, with the sparkling crystal lights, plush carpeting and marble, and a fountain, and there you go—on second thought, maybe it is just a _little_ bit fancy, but it was home to me.

  I heard the elevator whir to life before anyone else did. Can normal people hear elevators? I dunno, but the sudden tension in my body must’ve tipped dad off.

    _Oh fuck,_ he thought. Dad never swears, so this caught my attention. And yes, I can read minds, but only when I’m stressed or hungry; let’s not make a big deal out of it—and I’ve heard every possible Edward Cullen joke you can imagine, so don’t go there, pal. Dad must’ve seen me flinch, because he addressed me directly.

    _You absolutely will_ not _let them know what you are._

  I was nodding when the elevator doors opened.

 

  As unlikely as it is having two people from different dimensions and different nationalities in love, seeing it in real life just kind of hit it home. Seeing them, you wouldn’t think they even knew _of_ each other, let alone were getting married.

  Sera was… Sera. Irish rage condensed into five feet of petite yet firm lady, with the same blonde hair as dad cut shorter than mine—which wasn’t much of a feat, really; plenty of girls have, on occasion, envied my luscious crow’s nest of black hair that I refuse to get cut (I have a pathological fear of hair salons. Don’t ask). Forest-green eyes danced and sparkled just like the crystal chandeliers of the entrance hall as Sera swaggered into the room, Chieko trailing modestly behind her.

  See, now this is what I was saying about the contrast between the two of them. Whilst Sera was dressed in a business suit that definitely showed her relation to my dad, Chieko was resplendent in a sparkling black dress that trailed behind her, and flattered her figure to the point where it was nearly lewd. Her long black hair tumbled in waves over her pale shoulders, equally black eyes piercing the room as nine-inch heels that didn’t seem remotely applicable clicked across the marble.

  As the two of them entered the room, trailed behind by intimidating guys in suits that I immediately ignored (hey, Sera had a gang of her own, y’know? Everyone’s entitled to their bodyguards. Not everyone can punch through walls), I ignored the need to brush down my suddenly inappropriate-feeling hair.

  Sera was the first to race forward and take up Erin in a massive hug, squalling with joy the whole time and exclaiming about how much he’d grown and the usual nonsense relatives say when you haven’t seen them for a while. After several moments, Chieko smiled just a fraction, and came to hug me (marginally more calmly than her fiancée). I leant down a little, even though Chieko was tall enough on her own. I can say it was one of the most awkward hugs I’ve ever had, and I’ve hugged a bear and my murderer before. She had the strangest scent; it was sweet, but bitter at the same time, like burnt sugar, or burnt flowers. I’d smelled it before, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

    “How are you, Morgan?” Chieko asked delicately through her heavy Japanese accent. My nanny, Riei, was Japanese, and had been raising me and Erin ever since my mom died up until I turned eighteen, so I was good with accents. That and I knew a little bit of my mother tongue.

    “Fine, thanks, auntie.” I smiled, careful not to show teeth.

  She nodded; she wasn’t the type to pry, after all, and stepped away to greet Erin.

    “I’ll get to you in a minute, Killian,” Sera said brightly. She said everything brightly. And loudly. “I’ve got to say hi to my titan of a nephew, here.”

    “Ha, ha. I’m not that tall, Sera. You’re just short.” Which was a total lie. I mean, she _was_ short, sure, but I’m six foot four. I think she had a complex. We hugged tightly; the burnt sugary smell was absent from her.

    “How’ve you been, Morg?” Everyone calls me that, though I have no idea who started it. It sounds just a little morbid me, truth be told.

    “Oh, y’know. This and that ha ha.”

  Sera nodded sagely. “Hmm, the teenage years. What I wouldn’t give to be young again!” She patted me on the shoulder, or, well, more like my chest really. “You savour these years, Morg. ‘Cuz they won’t last forever!” She slapped my shoulder again.

    “Ha, yeah, I guess…” I could hear the nervous laughter in my voice, but Sera didn’t seem to notice.

  After greeting my dad and finishing their hellos, Sera, Chieko and the three of us moved into the dining hall to have dinner.

 

  The place still made me uneasy.

On the day I was turned, a massive gang of enemy soldiers had raided the place. They worked for the _Vorvintti,_ our enemies because I was young and stupid and stole something of theirs. At the time we were having a massive party to—now that I think about it—celebrate me _not_ dying at the hands of the _Vorvintti._ Guess we celebrated a little early.

  The raid first attacked this dining hall, where the party was taking place. It was gruesome, horrible, and I can never forget it, never forget the all-out extermination, or how many people died in this very room.

  Of course, that was months ago, and the place has since then been thoroughly cleaned, but still. It wasn’t easy shaking the feeling that people had died here just recently.

  We took our seats at the one massive dining table that wouldn’t look out of place in the Hogwart’s Great Hall. A little jarring, having just the one table in this huge ballroom, but it was very, _very_ rare that any of us ate together.

    “So, what will you be having? Dinner?” Dad gestured to Chieko and Sera.

    “Dinner, I suppose.” Sera glanced at Chieko, who nodded.

    “You can have anything you want,” dad supplied with a smile.

    “Nonsense!” Sera actually thumped her fist against the white tablecloth. “You’ll eat with us too, of course, Killian.” The tone of her voice didn’t leave much room for debate. This was gonna’ be hard.

    “Ah, of course—” dad glanced swiftly in my direction, just a flicker of the eyes no one would notice unless they were looking.

    “I’ve already eaten,” I answered sheepishly. “Just before you guys got here, sorry.”

  Sera pouted, but didn’t dwell on it. “But at least have some desert?”

    “Ah, maybe a milkshake or something… Not that hungry.”

  In actual fact, I was starving. Just going to put this out there, I can’t actually eat. Like at all. Tried pizza once on a dare from my girlfriend (because what _else_ would you try?), it didn’t really taste like anything, and it wasn’t appealing in the least, and I paid for it dearly. Throwing up for hours, nausea that left me shaking, the works. So, no. No food.

 

Sera relented finally. “Hmm, fine. I’ll have… a steak? Chi?”

  Chieko looked thoughtful, but then again, she always did. She’d look pensive and brooding looking at cans of soup in a grocery store.

    “Just a salad, please.”

  The two butlers, for the most part unnoticed, nodded, taking dad and Erin’s orders last and rushing off to the kitchens.

We had individual kitchens on our floors, but it was worth it having your own professional chefs making meals for you. Anyway, none of us could cook.

    “So,” her wine already poured, Sera glanced at me, “What have you been doing since you finished school? Plans for college?”

  Ah, the college question. Doesn’t matter if you live on Earth, outer space or a different dimension entirely, middle-aged relatives always asked the same ulcer-inducing questions.

    “Um, just thought I’d take a gap year.” A butler had already poured me a glass of wine. I drank the scalding liquid quickly, wishing it were something else. “While I think of options and stuff…”

    “Well it’s a tough industry, Morg. You have to strike while the metal’s hot.”

    “While the ‘iron’ is hot,” Chieko supplied, apathetic.

    “Hmm. Iron, yeah. Where are you planning on going? Jotai U?”

  Truth be told, I had no plans whatsoever for college or uni or any of it. I was immortal, I think; what’s the rush? Anyway, my girlfriend’s going to medical school and let me tell you, she lives a life of hell, balancing her part-time job and school. I imagine if you manage to die and get sent to hell, torture would be in the form of never-ending college exams.

    “Ah, yeah probably.”

    “What will you study?”

  Never in my _life_ have I been more tempted to Jedi Mind Trick someone. Ahem, that’s compel, glamour, hypnotize or whatever floats your boat. And yes, I can do that. I think. “Probably… Inter-Dimensional politics?” I said instead, saying the first thing that regrettably popped into my head.

    “Oh? Interesting choice, considering.”

  Considering we’re criminals? “Well you never actually know when it might come in handy.”

    “You aren’t taking over the _Akatsuki?”_ Chieko asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She never rose her voice for anything, least of all actual conversation.

    “…Yeah, of course.” Another blatant lie. I was _supposed_ to take over, but in lieu of recent events, apparently I’m too much of a liability to be a leader. Listen, anger issues are a _little_ harder to control when you can punch through walls. We all have our off days. “It’s just something to do.”

  Sera was about to interrupt when thankfully, blissfully, the food finally arrived. Not once since I was human have I been more grateful for food. The butler placed a tall glass of frothy pink monstrosity—were milkshakes always so big?— under my nose, almost reluctantly. Thankfully the service and staff didn’t really know what I was, but they still knew something was… off. I haven’t ordered any food from them in months, and they knew it.

  We dug in—well, everyone else dug in, I just swirled the pink fluff around with my straw, reluctant to take a sip. I didn’t actually know whether or not I could still _drink_ other things. I could drink water just fine, what’s the harm in milk? Everyone else was already halfway through their meals by the time I decided to take a sip.

  It wasn’t… bad, exactly. Okay, yes and no; I mean, it tasted like strawberry, and that was fine and all, but the milk left the worst kind of aftertaste (you know the type, just worse). But it was drinkable.

  Apparently done with her unappetizing salad, Chieko struck conversation. “Well, since I know you’ll ask, Killian, _Aohi_ is going okay.”

    “What’s _Aohi?”_ I struggled with the vowels.

  Chieko seemed surprised, but answered without hesitation, “The… Our Yakuza? The family gang?”

  For the second time that day, I spat out my drink. “F-Family gang? Yakuza?”

    “…Yes? The one your mother… Morgan, don’t you know…?” She glanced uneasily at Sera, then at dad. Dad looked petrified; it was the first time I’d seen him that way. He wasn’t even that emotional when I was dying.

    “…Dad?” I asked without really listening for his answer. His thoughts were answer enough.

    _How could she? Dammit, Chieko! His mother didn’t want him to know— he wasn’t_ supposed to find out! _Ruined everything! Damn woman… No, it isn’t her fault. Oh my god,_ he hesitated, blinking as these thoughts raced through his mind between one heartbeat and the next. _He can hear, he can—_

_Morgan, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything it was a secret—_

  I clamped down on my thoughts, urging dad’s to leave. It was difficult to do; his heartbeat, with the thrum of the people around me, were getting louder and louder in my ears. My own heartbeat—yes, I still have one of those—jerked wildly in my chest. It was a cacophony of noise that made it hard to think, hard to push the other thoughts away.

    _Mom was in the Yakuza?_ Erin thought idly.

  Chieko was decidedly silent, even in her thoughts.

    _Whew, this atmosphere,_ Sera resisted the urge to take another sip of her wine.

    _I’m going to have to clean that…_ a butler behind me sighed.

  I leaped to my feet quickly, jostling the table and overturning several cups. The butler behind me sighed again, but I ignored him and left the hall, inadvertently slamming the door shut behind me…

 

  …And walking right into someone.


	2. Sugar, We're Goin' Down…

 

  I was fuming like crazy when I right up and smacked into someone. This didn’t help my temper.

    “What the hell, man?”

  The other person had tumbled to the ground, but I hadn’t moved an inch, barely even felt them bump me. It took a moment to realise who it was, and calm down enough to help him to his feet.

    “Bronco? What…?”

  Bronco, kind of my dad’s lieutenant, was a tall, muscular Rambo-type of guy that put me to shame every time I looked at the muscles rippling down his arms straight out of an action movie. He had a strip of hair that served as an impressively intimidating Mohawk, but gentle brown eyes that kind of reminded me of a cow. In short, he might’ve looked tough, but he was a kind and actually pretty smart guy under all that muscle. Plus, for whatever reason, I kind of got the feeling he was afraid of me.

  At the moment, though, he looked agitated and worried.

 

    “There’s been a— there’s problem.”

Good. No, not good that there’s a problem— don’t get the wrong idea; I need something to distract me from… _that._ “What kind of problem?”

    “There’s a guy here, from that gang down on ninth, _Coquina?_ Says his shipment of Cerith from us didn’t arrive.”

    “Seriously? That’s… odd. We don’t usually miss that kind of thing.” Cerith was a really potent drug, the type of thing you might hear law enforcement harp on about as being the ‘new trend’ and ‘harmful for your kids’. And you know what? It kind of is. Imagine a hellish concoction of LCD, meth and ice and you’d have something that resembles Cerith. Tried it once, and well… I’ve only heard this from others that apparently I was under the impression I was a god, and could see into the nth-dimension. Isn’t very imaginative, but since I don’t remember the experience at all, I’m guessing I had a good enough time. Never again though. Not that drugs even work anymore, but still. Don’t do drugs, kids.

    “I know, I was surprised, too. There wasn’t any record of it, and no one of ours reported it missing.”

    “Ah, so we look suspicious.”

  Bronco nodded as we took the elevator to the lower levels, where most of our meetings with other gangs took place. I shrugged out of my tux jacket, thankful for the instant relief, and loosened my tie. Ever since I was turned, I realised my body was a little hotter—okay, sometimes _a lot_ hotter—than other people’s, to the point where if I was mad enough, little puffs of _steam_ would blow out of my mouth and nose. If that wasn’t enough, whenever I had wounds (I’ve actually lost count how many times I’ve been stabbed till now) they’d heal in a massive blast of steam. I didn’t know if this was normal for _Vorvintti_ or what; I was alone in this, after all. But I wasn’t dead yet, and I could pretty much function in everyday life, so what’s the harm? Steam can’t hurt anyone. It was difficult to explain, though.

  Stepping out of the elevator, we entered the _Akatsuki’s_ main entrance hall, the casino-like area from before where we’d greeted my aunts. Continuing along the plush carpeting, we walked passed the fountain and into the hallways leading off the foyer. It was easy to get lost in these labyrinthine halls and apartments where the _Akatsuki_ lived, but I’d been here all my life. The casino-like foyer and extravagant, hotel-like hallways were as familiar to me as the back of my hand.

  Finally, stepping out from the other side, we entered the main lounge area of the _Akatsuki._

It was a luxurious entertainment area, filled with ritzy red chairs, pool tables, a bar, televisions and whatever else was needed to please a band of criminals. At the moment, though, it was being used to entertain guests of a fellow gang.

  Bronco clapped his hands together, a nervous habit of his that actually just managed to scare people. “Sorry that took so long, Rob.”

Rob, an indifferent guy with slicked-back grey hair, a pinstriped suit and a face synonymous with a bulldog, turned to face us, his hands in his pockets as he got up from his armchair.

    “No prob,” he said with the most stereotypical gangster accent I’ve ever heard in my life. He was a walking billboard for a sixties Italian gangster, if you can imagine. “When can I see my shipment?”

    “Ah, well, here’s the thing…” Bronco wrung his meaty wrists together. “We don’t have any… records. Of the transaction going wrong, I mean.”

  Rob’s eyes narrowed. “That’s too bad for you. That ain’t our problem; we didn’t receive the goods, it’s up to _you_ to pay up.”

    “Look, man. We don’t have any complaints on _our_ end so—”

    “Then you fuckers are the ones responsible for taking our money without deliverin’! What else am I supposed to get from that?”

  This guy was getting on my nerves. I took a peek at his thoughts (I don’t do this often, okay? People are entitled to their privacy. But this guy’s an asshole). His head was pretty empty (ha ha), but from what I could discern, he legitimately believed he was being cheated out of his deal. Like any good gangster, he’d brought back-up along with him; they stood around the room, some itching to take out a gun and fire up the place, others just as apathetic-faced as their leader. Even their thoughts held the same idea: that _we’d_ cheated them somehow, and they were in every right to be angry.

  Bronco arguing would get us nowhere.

    “The men that were meant to receive the order,” I interrupted. Rob turned to look at me for the first time, overwhelmed by my height as most everybody is. “What about them? Did you speak to them at all?”

  Rob hesitated, growing pensive as he considered. His thoughts were a mess of confusion, so I blocked them out while he sorted them out on his own. “…Y-Yes, I did. But they said… They said nothing went wrong.”

    “…?”

    “Yeah, that’s right. They said they went to get the Cerith, but when they… Hey, Dahn!” Rob called behind him, and one of the bodyguards came forward, a young kid probably just a year or two older than me with a shaved head and baby-blue eyes. “Tell ‘em what you told me.”

  The guy looked a little shaken when he spoke, “I remember going there to pick it up this morning, but everything there is… hazy. I remember getting the Cerith, but not who the other group was, or anything important. It’s like it’s a really distant… memory? And I only remember pieces. The next time I could think clearly, we were already back at base, and we had nothing.”

  I rifled through the guy’s memories, just to be safe. He wasn’t wrong; through his eyes, the memory of the drop were hazy at best, like a blanket had been cast on them at the time. Everything was vague and without causation; things would just happen in little spurts of action. It felt eerily like a dream.

    “He isn’t lying,” I told Bronco. A strange smell tickled the back of my throat, just the slightest hint of burnt… sugar. Sniffing the air (I’ve done weirder things), I followed the scent to Dahn’s jacket. He reeked of the stuff, that bittersweet scent. In fact, most the guys from _Coquina_ had just the smallest hint of that flavour.

  I couldn’t believe it took me this long to figure it out. The last time I’d smelled it was when I was human, after all—I didn’t have the same sense of smell back then that I do now.

  That burning sugar was the scent of Cerith.

 

  Okay, everyone’s entitled to their vices, right? Who am I to judge? I’m an addict, in a way, after all. But this… My own aunt?

Dahn was looking at me strangely (sniffing someone would do that), so I released his jacket that I don’t remember getting a hold of and he stumbled back. I’d deal with auntie later, I decided. First things first…

    “We’ll pay you back.”

  Bronco looked incredulous. “Are you serious, Morg? That’s more than one million cen. We can’t exactly afford that with the upcoming battle with—” he glanced at Rob uneasily, “— _‘them’.”_

‘Them’ didn’t refer to Rob; I guess it would’ve seemed that way. No, it’s something much worse: in a few months, I don’t exactly know when, we’re planning on hitting one of the _Vorvintti’s_ strongest members for information. Yeah, I hope that goes well, especially since I’m practically the ace in the hole.

    “I’ll talk to dad about it, don’t worry.”

    “But—”

    “I’ll check it out, okay?” I pulled Bronco away from Rob. “I have a bit of an idea about where our Cerith might’ve gone,” I whispered.

    “Y-you do?” Bronco murmured back.

  I nodded, tapping my nose, and we broke apart. “How about this? I’ll have a look with my men, and if we can’t find out where your Cerith’s gone in a week’s time, we’ll pay you back. That sound fair?”

  Rob didn’t look happy at all, but he said, “Fine. But you’ll definitely pay us back if you don’t find shit. And we’re never dealing with you’s again.”

    “Sure,” I said, barely containing a sneer. Customer service all over again. And yeah, I’ve had a job in the service industry before, working alongside my girlfriend at her part-time at a vampire convenience store. Now that I think about it, that’s a strange way to meet your girlfriend, isn’t it?

  Rob and the rest of _Coquina_ left, leaving me, Bronco and a very strange dilemma behind.


	3. Elementary, My Dear Watson (a.k.a. I'd Make the Best Detective)

****

  Looking back, what I decided to do next might _not_ have been one of my best detective-moves.

I didn’t really have any other leads besides Chieko, and the blank in both our records and some of the member’s memories, so it didn’t leave me with very many other options.

  The rest of my family were still having dinner (probably dessert by now) and socialising, so that left me with a window of opportunity to search through Chieko’s things.

  Yeah, I know how that sounds; like a really sleazy and shitty thing to do, but the drop had taken place just this morning, a few hours before Chieko and Sera had arrived. Chieko could’ve lied about coming here at the same time as Sera; after all, she had probably come from Lyn city, not Earth; she could’ve portalled early (most transportation in Jotai and Lyn City comprised of portals. _Futurrrree)_ , crashed the drop and taken the Cerith. I should ask Sera about how they got here, too.

  I got Chieko’s room number from a passing bellboy, and made my way there, careful to avoid anyone from my family. Her and Sera’s things had been taken to a vacant room among the _Akatsuki’s_ living quarters, that labyrinth of hallways me and Bronco had gone through earlier.  I stopped deep within the maze of hallways at room four-two-one, looking left and right before I opened the door. Ironically enough, it was a mutual-trust kind of thing that most of the doors in the _Akatsuki_ didn’t have locks on them. I felt vaguely guilty about this as I crossed the threshold into the room, but shrugged it off. All for the sake of justice, yeah?

  The smell hit me like a freight-train.

That’s a funny analogy, since we don’t have freight-trains. It hit me like… a massive lizard man running really fast? It was a strong smell, okay? What else can I say; it burnt my nose and filled my head; the scent was everywhere, how did no one notice? Crossing the room— simple with an unused bed, dresser and window facing the sprawling city far below that resembled a hotel room if nothing else—I began to sift through Chieko and Sera’s things. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking for, but at this point anything would be welcome. They hadn’t brought many bags, just a couple large suitcases, so it didn’t seem like they were staying long. Chieko’s things (at least I thought they were hers, if the extravagancy of her clothes and scent of her were anything to go by) all reeked of Cerith, but Sera’s only had a faint scent, likely there just by coming into contact with Chieko’s.

  The burning of Cerith grew stronger as I rifled through what I thought was a makeup bag, until I finally came across a tiny vial filled with faintly blue liquid.

  Ah hah.

No need to remove the cap; the smell was so strong I could taste it. So she was taking Cerith. Who knew? How the hell was she on it casually without… believing she was a god? I must’ve been a lightweight or something, Jesus. But she _must_ have had something to do with the failed drop, I knew it. I just had… a feeling. Call ‘em my detective instincts. Or something.

 

_Thump, thump._

  _Thump, thump._

 

  It was unmistakably a heartbeat. Slow and steady, without a care in the world, coming closer to the room. That wasn’t what was surprising. As I turned to listen, the only sound I could hear was the heartbeat and the sound of feet.

  Nothing else.

  Not a thought, not a whisper—not the tiniest sound of a mental voice.

You might not know it, but pretty much all the time your brain’s making noise. Sometimes at night, when you’re trying to sleep, it keeps yapping on, whispering sweet nothings as you toss and turn (I should know; I’m a grade A insomniac). Sometimes you’re having a conversation with yourself, sometimes it’s your subconscious whispering to you.

  From whoever was coming toward the room, I could hear absolutely nothing.

They were getting closer, and I’d been too preoccupied with the silence to move. I scrambled into action, stowing the vial back into the bag, and hastily tidying up. I couldn’t leave, obviously, and the window wasn’t able to open and several hundred feet away from the pavement (I don’t think even a _Vorvintti_ would survive a drop like that), so I did the sensible thing:

  I hid under the bed.

Now, I dunno if you’ve ever tried hiding a six foot four guy under a bed before, but it’s fucking _hard._

  Not even _Vorvintti_ strength could help me in this situation, so as the door opened, I sucked in a breath and held it. Quick note; though I still have a heartbeat, I don’t need oxygen quite as much as humans. I do need it eventually though, kind of like a whale; I timed it once and ended up holding my breath for seventeen minutes. That’s gotta’ be a world record, right?

  So I held my breath then, hoping that whoever had come in wouldn’t need to stay there for seventeen minutes.

Glancing from under the mattress, I spied the glitter of black, nine-inch heels.

  Chieko. Shit.

She stood, so still I grew worried she might’ve realised something was wrong, until she sat on the bed. I heard her rummaging through her things, imagining what she might’ve been doing since I couldn’t see her thoughts. It was a little disorienting; being able to read minds has kind of become a sixth (seventh? Being supernatural I can actually see ghosts, how cool is that?) sense, so when I can’t use it, it’s kind of like flying blind. Instead I used my hearing, which also wasn’t something to sniff at, as Chieko pawed through her things. I heard the clack of plastic and the tinkle of glass. She’d grabbed her makeup bag.

  What followed was the unmistakable sound of the glass stopper being removed from the vial, and the clink of glass as she lifted the stopper from the bottle. Silence, only Chieko’s breathing and steady heart filling the room, then a shudder in her heartbeat. After several tense minutes, Chieko replaced the stopper and packed away her things.

  Once again she rifled through her stuff, and I heard the shuffle of fabric as she began to undress. I nearly cried out, right there. I shut my eyes tightly, cringing, even though I couldn’t really see anything.

  This is so fucking wrong, oh my god. This was a bad idea, a really _stupid_ idea.

Alright, calm down, me. It was over in a few moments; having changed into something more comfortable (I hadn’t opened my eyes, so I didn’t know what), Chieko straightened up, then abruptly left, locking the door behind her with a newly acquired key.

  That. Was horrible.

I listened a little longer as her heartbeat receded, then quickly shuffled out from under the bed and left the room, barely careful enough to the turn the lock behind me.

 

  I know it seems a little pointless to have done all that, seeing as how I could just as easily smelled the Cerith on her. To be honest I had nothing else to do, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Plus, it confirmed that Chieko wasn’t just dealing with Cerith, she was _taking_ it too, though I only found out that last part by lucky chance.

  I just needed to find out if she or her gang had something to do with—

  Oh yeah.

  That’s right. The Yakuza.

  Somehow I forgot. About that.

 

***

 

  I was pacing around the _Akatsuki’s_ lower level, ‘interviewing’ the members that had been involved with the drop (guilty; I was snooping), when dad finally decided to show up. Secretly (or maybe not) I’d been waiting for him to finally show his face and explain… y’know, _everything._

  I went to stand by a corner in the room when dad showed up, crisp suit not looking ruffled in the slightest. It was a little irritating; nothing ever really got to the man. I got what little satisfaction I could with him being so miffed about me finding out about mom. Like a kid, I only crossed my arms over my chest and turned away. He knew I could still hear him though, of course.

    _Son,_ he whispered into my mind. Dad’s mental thoughts had a funny tenor to it—not so much an actual voice, but more like the impression of sound; like the creaking of wood in the boughs of a tree, or the whispering of autumn leaves. Not something I can explain properly, in any case.

    _Can we talk?_

Don’t get me wrong, I’m angry at him for keeping secrets. But more than that though, I’m curious. More than curious, in fact— I’m _hungry_ for the knowledge. I hadn’t forgiven him, but I could put my anger… on the backburner, for a little bit.

  I nodded, following dad as he left the lower level, likely looking for somewhere more private (or, more likely, more comfortable and refined). A little while later we were back in the ballroom, leaning on the marble balustrade that made up the outdoor area of the ballroom level. Rosebushes lined the marble fence, their luscious crimson flowers blooming brilliantly out-of-season and sprinkling tear-drop petals of blood into the night, down into the city far below. For whatever reason, in the last few months the roses were always blooming spectacularly at night, no matter what the season, without rain or water, their petals falling and opening all within the span of a day. It wasn’t really hurting anyone, even if it was mighty strange, so we never bothered them.

  Dad somehow acquired a glass of wine on our way here, and sipped it contentedly as he sat on the marble, his gaze uneasily drifting to the city far below. His thoughts were a jumble of memories and what he wanted to say clashing together. He _was_ trying, though. I sat beside him, blocking out his thoughts as he struggled to bring them together. This was a battle he’d need to do on his own.

    “We… we started out as enemies, I guess,” he began.

  At the puzzled look on my face (I was opting instead to fly blind here and let him explain), he continued, “We were, well we didn’t have a name back then, just a bunch of young mobsters, I suppose. ‘Those kids’ or ‘those Irish gangsters’, that’s what they called us sometimes. But we somehow managed to make a name of ourselves. It took a long time, and a lot of threats, but we came to be a pretty… infamous gang. That’s when we caught the attention of the _other_ mobs…”

  He paused to have a drink, his gaze lost in thought. I was fidgeting like a toddler; I like stories as much as the next guy, but I’m the type of person that skips to the end of the paragraph unintentionally then regrets it.

    “Mainly, the Yakuza and the Mafia. Thankfully, though, it was the Yakuza that found us first, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” He chuckled, like he wasn’t in a life or death situation all those years ago. “We had a love-and-hate relationship, you could say. They liked that we had balls, but hated our inconsistency. Can’t say I blame them; we were right arses back in the day. Well… It was around that time I met your mother, Eriko. _Pshaw,_ she was a looker.”

  I was simultaneously disgusted and embarrassed.

    “She was the— I don’t really know how it works, but she was… an attendant? A lieutenant? She wasn’t at the top, but she was pretty high up, and treated with quite a bit of respect. Y’know how they are; women don’t often get involved in these kind of things, mainly just as wives or whatever have you. But her… she was different. Her older sister, Chieko, was just underneath Eriko; don’t ask how _that_ came about, but I heard it put a bit of a rift between them. Anyway, the both of them were special, in that they held pretty high positions within their Yakuza clan, the _Aohi._ If it wasn’t for them, our own little group would’ve been… _destroyed._

    “Her boss, the family head, and the Mafia, were planning on one way or another, taking us out. But Eriko saw something in me that she— She saved our lives. She pleaded with the boss to instead have us form an alliance. Maybe it was meant to be, because the head never changes his mind; his word was law. But for us he did. We allied and grew to become one of the strongest clans, split up from _Aohi—_ the _Akatsuki.”_

    “Wait, so… technically, I mean… _We’re_ Yakuza, too, right?”

    “Just a technicality, but I suppose so. None of us really see it that way anymore, and we’ve grown powerfully—and distantly—enough that we don’t really answer to _Aohi,_ and by extension, the Yakuza, anymore. We’re our own group.”

    “So mom… Did they just… let her go?”

    “Well…. No, no they didn’t. This is where it gets a little complicated, Morgan. Some members of _Aohi_ thought it a grave misgiving to have dealt with foreigners so leniently. Things were a little different back then. This was back before we became a super power, mind you, but some of the members of _Aohi_ believed that we posed a threat, and could turn on them at any time. It actually came at a bad time for the clan, too; their leader was getting on in years, and had been making stranger and stranger decisions. We being left alive was probably one of them, now that I think back. In any case, their family head was on his last legs. He retired, passed on his torch, whatever it is they do. But it wasn’t that that surprised the clan. It was to whom he passed it on _to._

“It doesn’t happen very often, probably only once or twice, and only usually in emergencies, but the family head was passed on to Eriko.”


	4. How I Met Your Yakuza Mother

****

  He drained the last of his wine and sat the glass down with a _chink._ The crimson residue at the bottom of the glass left a sour taste in my mouth and a fever in my throat.

    “They weren’t happy, obviously. Many tried to object, but not only did the family head have many supporters within the clan, but Eriko as well. Enough so that the ones that objected didn’t really have much else to fall back on. Plus, they had to admit that Eriko was a fantastic leader; she was wise and thoughtful, but strict and sharp, qualities that their previous head were beginning to lose. Eventually not even those that opposed her could really argue. But…”

  His eyes grew just that much more wistful, and he pursed his lips. “She wasn’t happy there.

    “It’s a pretty big deal when one of their members shirk their duties, and Eriko didn’t want to be like that. We’d already started dating, and around a couple years or so after she became the family head, she tried to live two lives at once. She tried travelling with me, and keeping in touch with _Aohi_ back on Earth, but there wasn’t much she could do, being an entire world away, and all.”

  He raked a hand across his face, which is rare for him. This was difficult for him to talk about. “When she became pregnant with you, it was the last nail in the coffin, I guess.” He cringed at his own joke. He needn’t worry; I make dumb vampire jokes all the time.

    “She handed over the clan to her older sister, who some believed was better suited to the job anyway, though that’s really just a load of bull. Chieko might seem all refined, but between you and me, she’s a bit… of a bitch.”

   I’m both disgusted at the slur, and at the prospect that he might actually be right and she’s hiding something.

    “Eriko didn’t cut all her ties, of course, but she made it well known that she would no longer be playing an active part in _Aohi._ They were fine with it, I guess. Chieko was, of course, over the moon.

    “We moved to Jotai, where some of _Aohi_ were already making a name for themselves, and well you know pretty much the rest. She raised you without telling you anything about the Yakuza, then had Erin.”

  He stopped abruptly, like he was afraid he’d said too much, or was going to let something slip. Could it be… was he about to…?

    “Then…?” I prodded. For as long as I could remember, the events of mom’s death was strictly off-limits. Taboo. Definite no-no unless you wanted death upon you. Now though… I’ve never seen dad so vulnerable.

    “…Then she died,” he answered simply.

  He stood up so quickly I had to steady myself before I fell off the marble and plunged to my death (?) two hundred and fifty metres down below. His thoughts were an unreadable cloud that made me feel sick as he ‘stormed’ off (dad doesn’t ‘storm’ from anything, really, but this was like, his equivalent).

  I was left to ponder his words, the cloying scent of roses so thick and strong it nearly made me dizzy, but I endured it. The night air was cold despite it soon being summer, probably too cold for anyone else to be comfortable in, but it was perfect for me. The longer I spent time in this alien body of mine, the more I realised how different I was to other people, especially from my family and friends.

  My mother was in the Yakuza at some point— the _family head,_ no less. And, more importantly, aunt Chieko was up to something strange. It was what my gut was telling me, anyway.

 

***

 

    “Wow, the _Yakuza?!_ That’s pretty cool.”

    “‘Pretty cool’? I dunno man, that’s an understatement; what would _you_ do if you found out _your_ mom was in a world-famous gang?”

  Me and my bestie, Kaidyn—scrawny kid with sandy hair and kind brown eyes that looked a lot _less_ kind when he’s a bear (you read that right)—stood around the kitchen on my floor, usual positions when we were in a heated discussion. I was nursing my third cup of hot A negative (my equivalent of bedtime cocoa) while we talked about the whole situation. Kaidyn was a great listener, and had been putting up with my stupidity since we were in high school. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t tell the guy.

  I’d invited him over to hang—I needed someone who _wasn’t_ family to puzzle out all this bullcrap.

    “My mom is a tiny housewife in an apron. Can you even imagine…?” He spun around on the swivel-bar-chair for emphasis.

    “Really? I always thought your mom would’ve been this massive lumberjack lady with a beard and killer guns for wrestling wild animals.”

    “Don’t be silly. That’s my dad.” He slammed his palms down hard on the marble benchtop (he might be scrawny, but he’s got the strength of a wild animal let me tell you), scaring the shit out of me. If I didn’t have okay reflexes I would’ve kissed my midnight snack goodbye. “Enough about my mom’s beard, what’re you going to do about your aunt?”

  I’d told him everything, as usual, from the whole Cerith thing to how I kind of suspect Chieko for having something to do with our failed drop with _Coquina._ If there was something on my mind, he would’ve beat the information out of me anyway.

  At this point, there weren’t many options left, unless I went to _Aohi_ directly and confronted them. And that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever thought of, ignore me.

    “I dunno, Kai. I was planning on going back to where the drop took place, actually.”

    “What, why?”

    “Scene of the crime, I guess?”

    “What’re you, a cop now?”

  I snorted through my nose. “Ha ha, very funny. No, maybe I can find something out. Something went wrong there, and if I don’t want to pay out a million cen out of my allowance, I gotta’ find out what.”

  Kaidyn frowned sarcastically. “Just a small million cen? Ah, your life must be _so_ difficult.”

  I resisted the urge to throw my mug at his sarcastic face. “Shuddup,” I said instead, very eloquently.

    “So,” he continued through chuckles. “When are you going?”

    “I… Tonight, I guess. Probably won’t be able to sleep anyway. Plus it’s better if I go when there’s not so many people around.”

  Kaidyn nodded sagely. “And you know I’m going with you, yes?”

    “Didn’t doubt it, bro.”

 

 

  An hour later we left the building through the back entrance, the better to not attract attention.

Though we might’ve lived on the top six floors of the building, the rest belonged to ordinary civilians who, though they probably knew what was going on above them, were completely innocent. They must’ve shit their collective pants when an army of angry vampires and gangsters came and raided the building six months ago. Mind you, they didn’t have their throats torn out with someone’s bare teeth, so they’re a little more fortunate getting off with just stained underwear.

  We portalled to the drop point, a small office building with an adjacent warehouse in eleventh district. You’d think a lack of vehicles made it more difficult for criminals, but no; the portals make it easier for us to spread our evil criminal activities (that’s a joke) across the city, making us harder to pin down. Not that we really need to take such precautions; Jotai’s police and the gangs have a kind of mutual agreement—don’t get in our business, and we won’t get in yours. As long as you don’t fuck shit up too badly.

  I had a spare key to the office building I’d nabbed off one of one of the other _Akatsuki_ members, and let ourselves in. I pricked my ears for a couple of seconds, hearing nothing. We were completely alone. Good, time to get some snooping done.

  The office itself was just a front, of course. From the outside it looked like just your ordinary business firm, complete with desks and computers and pot plants. The computers were just there to look pretty and for some of the _Akatsuki_ to check their Facebook; we wouldn’t really be dumb enough to keep potentially incriminating records on computers. For that kind of thing we stored it on paper, filed away in very secretive locations around the city. It was extra work, sure, but better safe than sorry. What I really wanted to look into was the actual warehouse itself.

  I took a quick glance around the office, but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

    “Hey, Morgan?” Kaidyn interrupted, stumbling as he crossed the office. “I have great night vision, y’know. But I cannot see shit. Where’s the light switch?”

  Oh, I hadn’t even realised. I was doing that a lot lately; I don’t even notice the transition between light and dark, everything’s the same to me either way. I crossed the room, back toward the entrance, and shut the blinds before flicking on the light. My eyes stung just slightly from the light, before I re-joined Kaidyn.

    “Anything?” I asked.

    “Nope. Nudda.”

  I nodded. “Thought so. We’ll check the back.”

  We left the office area, I switched off the light just in case someone got suspicious, and we made our way to the warehouse beside the office.

  It was a tiny thing, to match the tiny office; calling it a ‘warehouse’ was a bit of an overstatement. It didn’t really store anything, it was just there for drops, really. In that way it had plenty of space for crates, carrier drones, and carts. And it was comfortable enough for a group of people to wait around in all day.

  Kaidyn flicked on the light, illuminating a modest space with a few shelves lining the far off wall, a high ceiling, and a garage door dominating the furthest wall away from the entrance. Stairs led down into the main area, a large clear space with a few crates and carts stacked around its edge. Besides the general blandness of the place, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  We descended the stairs leading to the main space, and began poking around. The place reeked of Cerith, which wasn’t really much of a surprise, I guess. Besides that though, there really wasn’t much else to see. Although…

    “You feel that?” Kaidyn broke the silence. He was uneasily rubbing his shoulders, like he had the shivers. I _did_ feel that.

  It was like… the air was electrified. Imagine someone watching you, but times a thousand. It was strong enough to leave an actual taste on my tongue, like the tense air before a storm. Something was definitely wrong, that’s for sure.

    “Yeah…” I answered uneasily. Even I was starting to feel the tickle of goosebumps down my neck.

 

  _Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump…_

Under the heavy bass of Kaidyn’s heartbeat, was the unmistakable flutter of another.

 


	5. What a 'Shocking' Revelation

 

It was definitely a heartbeat, but it was much too fast and light to be human, more like the hammering of a rabbit, or even a child. I’d grown pretty good at distinguishing them in the last few months, not that that’s anything to be proud of now that I think about it.

  The sound was also most definitely coming from close by, if not in the office or warehouse itself.

    “Someone’s here,” I said just above a whisper. Kaidyn nodded and tensed up, glancing around himself uneasily. He’d be safe if it came to a fight; I’d seen him hold his own against a high-ranking _Vorvintti_ vampire before (granted he _was_ a bear at the time) so he should be safe on his own.

  I began following the source of the noise. At this point, it was my only lead. I stepped lightly; the sound seemed to be coming from somewhere within the office building, and I don’t think whoever it was had realised we were on to them just yet. I turned back to Kaidyn, putting my finger to my lips in the universal _‘shhh’_ gesture. He nodded, but looked at me like I was an idiot, which was understandable. We quietly ascended the steps, and I silently prayed that the door to the office wouldn’t creak.

  It didn’t, and we made our way inside.

The jack-rabbit heartbeats stammered, and grew louder.

  They were on to us.

I heard the distant patter of footsteps—however light they intended them to be, I could still hear them—race through the office building a split second before I took off after them. Kaidyn yelled a feeble ‘Wait!’ behind me, but I didn’t have time to waste. I couldn’t let this opportunity slip through my fingers.

My own footsteps felt thunderously loud compared to whomever was running ahead of me, but that wouldn’t stop me. Whoever it was, they weren’t too far away before I’d opened the office door, probably only a few feet away from the actual door itself. They were just ahead of me as I raced across the corridor into the front of the office building, the figure leaping nimbly over desks and chairs while I had to take the time to dodge around them. They were small, agile and fast, but I had strength and stamina on my side. I wouldn’t let them escape.

  The figure slipped around the door and into the street beyond. With a frustrated growl, I pulled the door open enough to fit through, nearly tearing it off its hinges. The figure was already several shopfronts ahead before I managed to regain my ground. They turned their head, covered by a hood, this way and that, likely looking for an escape.

  Wait.

Likely looking for an escape…? As in, I had _no idea_ what they were thinking?

Yeah, no doubt; whoever this is, they had no thoughts whatsoever.

Silence.

  Just like Chieko… No, it couldn’t be…? Nah, that’s ridiculous, even for me.

  Right?

 

The figure seemed to decide for a moment, and actually leapt onto the front of a building on the left, holding on to just the window railing two metres off the ground. They planted their feet against the wall and kicked upward, flipping in mid-air and landing on the roof.

  It was, downright, one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

But I wasn’t ready to get out-staged just yet.

  I ran back until I was facing the opposite wall of buildings, rubbing my hands together and breathing like I was about to run a marathon. Mom, wherever you are, if you’re listening, please let this work and let me be a badass, just this once?

  I kicked off, feeling the gravel crunch beneath my feet, and ran face-first at the building.

 

  The moment my foot hit the bottom of the building, I had the startling revelation that I could have just as easily jumped the few metres to the roof just as easily. That thought was way too late as I was concentrating planting my feet one in front of the other, straight _up_ the building. I focused my centre of gravity and strength to my feet and balance, keeping up the momentum as I ran straight upwards. At the homestretch I planted my feet into the building’s side, then reached for the edge of the roof, hooking my feet over and pulling myself over the side.

  This all happened in about the span of five seconds, but that could be an eternity in a chase. Lucky for me though, the mysterious figure seemed to have taken the opportunity to take a breather at their apparent escape; I spied them, hands on hips, panting a little just a few feet away on the other side of the roof. They seemed stunned with disbelief for a fraction of a second before they took off, leaping from this roof onto the opposite roof ahead.

  Ah, goddam it, can’t you make this easy?

I took off after them once again, easily jumping from this roof to the next. The figure seemed exhausted and out of options, with their apparent escape route totally down the shitter, and was looking desperately around for other options of escape.

  They wouldn’t find it.

Though they were out of breath, physical exhaustion for me was a breeze, especially at night (I don’t burn in sunlight, sure, but like I said, it still sucks ass and makes me tired as hell). After several wild seconds, I managed to snag the back of the figure’s hood.

  I dragged them back, harshly, and the figure let out and oddly high-pitched yelp. Forcefully shoving them to the rooftop, I was on top of them in a split second, my hands clamping their shoulders roughly into place.

 

  With the hood pulled back, I finally caught a glimpse of the person beneath...

                                                             …And it was a total babe.

 

  I was absolutely shocked to say the least.

Now, I don’t want any confusion or anything here; I’m totally in love with my girlfriend, and I’m a faithful guy. I’ve been cheated on and used before, so I know it’s the shittiest thing you can do to a person. Okay, with that out of the way, this girl was fucking… wow. Fair, nearly translucent skin was flushed red beneath silky strands of black hair that came free from the braid on the back of her neck. Her eyes—angry, humiliated and… fearful?—burned molten gold, contrasting with her Asian features. She was pissed, to say the least. But she also seemed scared, too. Well, the guy that just ran up the side of a building just caught her, so that’s fair.

  Then a slow grin broke across her face.

  Her golden eyes flashed dangerously as she said in a sultry voice, “Release me.”

 In response, I answered, “Huh?”

 _Now_ she seemed a little more surprised. “Release me!” she said a little more forcefully.

    “No??” I answered back, a little puzzled.

  Her amber eyes widened. “Why isn’t it working…? Release me, you—you ass!” She began wriggling, but I held her fast. She was pretty strong, way stronger than she should’ve been for someone her size. Her rabbit heart was so fast there was barely a breath between one beat and the next. It didn’t help that she was right beneath me, either. Somewhere along the line my fangs had slipped free of my gums, probably during the chase (can’t exactly hide that I’m a bit of a predator. No, not in _that_ way, please). It was getting harder to think clearly, and despite the several mugs of warm ‘cocoa’, I was getting hungry.

    “Can you s-stop wriggling!” I slammed her shoulders against the rooftop. It was only meant to be gentle, just a shake, but I’d misjudged my strength; she cried out in pain and I felt her bones creak ominously beneath my palms. “S-Sorry!” I released her immediately, moving back and leaving at least a foot between us. She got up gingerly, her hood falling away. The glint of silver pearls at her earlobes caught my attention; I’d seen pearls like that very recently…

  I had absolutely no warning whatsoever as she burst forward at inhuman speed and slammed a dagger into my stomach.

 

  See, if I could hear her thoughts this kind of bullshit. Wouldn’t. Happen.

A gasp escaped my lips, blood spraying between my teeth. I grabbed her hand, just in case she decided to finish me off seppuku-style. She was holding the knife tightly, with every intent to kill. But her hand was shaking, if only ever so slightly. A small wisp of steam curled around the blade. The wound was already trying to heal.

    “That’s… fair.” I managed to stammer.

  She pulled the blade free, spraying the ground red. I clamped my hand over the wound while it healed, heat blooming beneath my fingers.

    “Could be worse.” In the span of a few seconds the cut, more or less, healed. She did _not_ seem to appreciate my fast recovery, though. The woman seemed both outraged and confused at the same time.

    “What… _are_ you?!” she growled between clenched teeth, golden eyes flashing. Dusting the knife against her pants, she flipped it, blade backward, and slipped out another knife from a sheath on the belt around her waist. The knives glinted maliciously in the moonlight.

  Wait, no. That wasn’t moonlight. They actually _were_ lit up; small tendrils of blue electricity arced along the blades, the light crawling up the woman’s arms. It didn’t seem to bother her; in fact, it didn’t seem like she even noticed. If she stabbed me with one of those, _I’d_ sure as hell notice, though.

    “Wouldn’t _you_ like to know?” I flashed her a wicked grin, showing teeth. She howled in frustration and burst forward, faster than she’d moved the entire time. Her blades glittered in near invisible slices through the air, but I could see them, hear them whistle through the air, sensed the muscles move in her body before even she knew it. She tried slicing at me a few times, but I was just a fraction faster. Just a fraction, mind you; she was incredibly fast. Even with all my extra senses, it was taking a lot more concentration than I usually muster into physical fights to keep up with her than usual. She definitely _wasn’t_ human.

  Oh shit.

    “Argh!” She actually managed to slice me, just two on my arms and a shallow gash on my chest, but the cuts hurt like hell. I leapt back, giving my body a small window of time to heal, but she wouldn’t give me the satisfaction. She was _really_ pissed.

  She pressed her attack, her confidence boosted with the cuts she’d made. They were healing, but for whatever reason, it was much slower than before, not to mention they actually stung. If she stabbed me now, with whatever weird mojo she had going on, it might actually do damage.

  Grinning like crazy, a mad glint in those amber eyes, her face wasn’t beginning to look very hot anymore. Probably deserved that. She went in for an angry swipe of both of her arms, and I saw my chance. I grabbed them both, clamping my nails down hard into her skin. They were iron-hard, strong enough to cut through metal, so she cried out and dropped her knives immediately. I wasn’t playing around anymore. It was my turn to be pissed.

  The woman was crying out in pain, but that was probably just a front. All this time for all I know every little bit of weakness she’d shown me could’ve just been a lie.

    “Let go!” she screamed.

    “Who do you work for?!” I growled back.

  She paled, growing still.

    “Tell me! I won’t let you go, we can stay here all night, and tomorrow and the day after, until you tell me _something._ ” It didn’t seem like a good prospect, but dammit if I couldn’t read her thoughts, what else could I do?

    “Fuck you.”

  She let loose a torrent of lightning from her fingers, which of course zapped through my arms and into my body. I’m pretty resilient, but a jolt of electricity can ‘shock’ just about anyone. I cried out but try as I might, I couldn’t let her go; my body was paralysed. A numbing, burning pain filled my veins as the electricity coursed its way through my system, then it was gone just as quickly as it came. My body was still numb though, and aching from the pain, but the woman took the opportunity to pull free of my grasp.

  She’d seriously underestimated my healing factor, though…

…At least, that’s what I’d like to think.

  That weird mojo from before seemed to also apply to direct lightning, too; my body refused to move. I was on my knees before I could help myself. I couldn’t even open my mouth to give her a sarcastic retort.

    “God, what a fucking asshole.” The girl knelt in front of me, where I was still much too paralysed to move. She held the knife blades dangerously close to my neck, her golden gaze staring me down. “It’s my turn to ask. Who do _you_ work for?”

  Well, if you hadn’t electrocuted me, _maybe_ I could’ve said something. As it was all I could muster was a weak sneer.

  But the pain was fading, the feeling in my limbs returning…

  It was being replaced by something else.

    “What’s that, nothing to say? You had a lot to say before…” With one knife still pressed against my Adam’s apple, she slowly lifted the other against my cheek, the sharp metal grazing the skin.

  I let out a breath I’d been holding, a great puff of heated steam streaming from my nose like a kettle.

  See, this is what I meant by replaced by something else: sometimes I get in pretty effed-up situations, where, even with my super healing, there are just some things I can’t heal. At those times, well… my metabolism needs to keep up, right? So it heats up.

  More specifically, it heats _me_ up. And no, not in _that_ way.

It feels more like my body’s on fire than innocent sexy-time.

 

  The woman flinched back, but didn’t remove the blade from my neck. Sucks for her; I was getting the feeling back in my body. Not that I was gonna let on so soon.

    “The fuck?” was all she said.

  The fuck is right.

I’m not— I’m not proud, of what I did next. I figured the Jedi Mind Trick (vampire compulsion, whatever. This is marginally less embarrassing) probably wouldn’t work on her, since I couldn’t hear her thoughts, and that she seemed under the impression she could compel _me,_ so I was a little short on options. If I’d grabbed her arms again, she could’ve just shot me with lightning, and I didn’t want to stab her, or anything like that. She stabbed me, sure, but I’m better than that.

  So I did what I was made for.

I grabbed both her wrists, twisting them away to her sides, and yanked her forward. Then I bit her.

 

  She… Tasted like absolute shit.

What the fuck?

I managed one choked swallow before I forcefully pushed her away, leaving her sprawling a few feet away. I was too busy desperately spitting out the liquid to care. It was scalding my throat, and it tasted incredibly bitter, like drinking battery acid. Not that I’ve tried drinking battery acid, you get what I mean.

    “Jesus…!” I spluttered. “Shit lady, what have you been _eating?!_ That is _vile..!”_

  For a second she actually seemed a little offended, but she got over it quick smart. “Did you just fucking _bite me...?!”_ Cupping her shoulder, she looked down in disbelief at the blood between her fingers.

    “Don’t worry, wish I hadn’t. Argh, that’s nasty.”

  It was gross, trust me, but I had a momentary opening. She’d dropped one knife, but the other was still held tightly in her grip, so I focused on that one first. Sliding forward I grabbed the knife, blade-first (ow) and tore it from her grip, throwing it over the edge of the roof where it fell to the pavement far below with a satisfying clack. Before she could move, I went and kicked the other knife over the edge, where it joined its twin. My palm itched where it was cut with the knife, but it healed over quickly enough; my body was still uncomfortably warm from its little outburst before.

  The girl watched the knives disappear in dismay.

At this point we were both left exhausted and battered. But at least I kind of had the upper hand. She’d run out of weapons, but I still had… my fists?

    “Ah, shit. Are you finally ready to talk—”

  Ah.

  Oh okay, that’s totally fair. Not.

 

  The wound on her shoulder completely healed, she raced forward faster than even I could see her move, body wreathed in lightning, and stabbed me in the gut.

  With her fist.


	6. Seriously, I'm Truly 'Stunned'

****

  It was like getting stabbed all over again.

Except this time, I didn’t have the energy to muster a smarmy comeback. She pulled her wrist free, the tip of her dangerously sharp nails right down to her forearm drenched in blood, and went in for another jab. I had to grab her wrist before she managed to impale me, but it took a lot of effort. She pulled her free hand up behind her head, as if she would slash me in the face, but I met her head-on, slamming my palm into hers and leaving us locked in a battle of strength and will. And I was running low on both of those things.

  Grunting and breathing heavily, we both struggled, one fiercely trying to gain traction over the other.

Wait.

  Are those… ears?

Cat ears. She has cat ears now.

Holy shit I didn’t know I was an anime protagonist, what is this. Her expression was equally fearsome (if you can call kitty ears ‘fearsome’), her golden eyes housing vertical pupils (I’m suing for copyright; slitted pupils are my thing), teeth two rows of sharp points, and her cheeks high and inhuman. She looked more like an alien, or one of those foreign supermodels. Or even an elf. Point is, she didn’t look very human anymore.

  She actually growled at me, before she shoved me away.

  We stared each other down, neither willing to back away, until I sneezed.

 

Yeah, _of course_ I’m allergic to cats, that’s a surprise. Heck, I’m immortal with a lens prescription, why can’t I be allergic to things, too?

  The girl was stunned. She started to giggle, lightly at first, like she was trying to hide her laughter, until she was letting loose full on guffaws of laughter that echoed out across the rooves of the town.

    “Th-that’s so fucking funny, oh my god. A vampire… with allergies?” She snorted through her nose.

  I sneezed again and that only set her off more.

  She was about to fall on her ass when I managed, through sniffles, “Just tell me who you work for and what you are, and I’ll let you off with a warning.”

  The girl sobered up for a moment, but was still smiling like crazy. Rubbing the tears from her eyes, she said, “Alright, fine. Probably can’t beat you anyway. I’m tired.

    “I’m a kitsune, and I work for my master, Chieko Takashima.”

 

  …?!

  Noooooo fucking way.

Nope, nah, nudda, not buying it, nuh-uh.

    “Ch-Chieko… Takashima?” I heard myself stammer.

    “Yup, leader of the Yakuza _Aohi_ clan. That’s all I should really say; don’t want to get in trouble—”

    “You gotta’ be fucking _kidding_ me.”

    “I really am not—”

    “Why were you here?” I interrupted angrily. I didn’t want to really think about why this cat— excuse me, _fox_ lady was here, but the implication is that Chieko _orchestrated_ having our Cerith stolen. And she had hired-help to do it.

    “Excuse me?” she asked, both puzzled and slightly exasperated.

    “Were you guarding the warehouse? Watching to see if we’d come investigate? Did Chieko put you up to it?!”

    “Jesus, slow down!”

  By then I was dangerously close to grabbing the front of her shirt and yanking her, but with great difficulty I resisted the urge, clamping my fists at my sides and digging my nails into my palms instead.

    “Y-Yes, they were my orders. She needed to know if the _Akatsuki_ would’ve caught on! Fuck, back off man, you’re deep in my personal space.”

  Backing off, I paced the roof, fuming.

Chieko… my aunt, _betrayed_ us? Stole from _us?_ Why? What the fuck for? We _literally_ could’ve given her all the Cerith she wanted; she didn’t need to go to such extremes, so far as betraying her own fucking _family._

    “Why?” I barked.

    “W-why what?”

    “Why did she steal the Cerith in the first place?”

“Whoa, chill. She needs it for the kitsune okay? It stabilises our spirits, makes it easier to harmonise our human and fox sides—”

    “I could not give two shits about all that. Why _her?_ And why the _Akatsuki?”_

    “…I dunno man, it was convenient? It was there? She didn’t think they’d notice?”

    “Well _I fucking noticed.”_

I was out of there. And I was going to confront her.

Going to the edge of the roof, I looked down for barely a second before the fox girl grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

    “Where are you going?!” she asked, anxious.                                                                                            

    “I’m going to have a ‘chat’ with her.” I yanked my arm free.

    “Wait, you can’t she’s with family right now, you can’t interrupt—”

    “Oh, I fucking know she’s with family. How do you think I got suspicious in the first damn place?”

  The girl looked at me, really stared at me for the first time that night. Her eyes widened.

    “You look like her— No, there’s no way, oh fuck I didn’t— are you in the _Akatsuki?”_

    “I’m Chieko’s fucking nephew, that’s what.”

  I leapt off the roof, landing comfortably on the balls of my feet a few stories below, leaving the fox-lady to dwell on her horrendous mistake of stabbing her master’s nephew not once, but _twice_ in the gut (I wasn’t still bitter, really).

  The master herself, though, had something coming to her.

 

 

  After imploring Kaidyn that yes, despite how positively awful I looked, I was okay, we portalled our way back home (fox-girl went mysteriously missing. She was probably ‘tailing’ me, but I could care less). I was fuming, as you can imagine. I seriously wouldn’t’ve guessed (actually, because I _did_ guess, I uncovered this whole thing. I could make a great detective one day. Ha ha) that soft-spoken, stern Chieko would’ve betrayed her own family, but you know what they say; the quiet ones, right? At least, that’s what I was trying to tell myself. Inside, though, nothing could really justify this. The only thing I could really do was confront her directly.

  With Kaidyn in tow, we made our way up to the _Akatsuki_ levels. By then it was about three in the morning, so only few of the members were actually awake, which also meant that Chieko was probably fast asleep.

  She was about to have a rather rude awakening.

I made my way to her room, still dressed in blood-soaked, ruined hoody and jeans (doesn’t that just make it look worse? Good), and slammed my fist firmly against the door. My ‘firmly’ being loud, booming knocks that rattled the doorframe.

    “Chieko!” I called angrily. “Come out here, there’s something I need to ask you!” I said it more like an accusation than a question.

  I waited several seconds as I heard the rustle of fabric and the disgruntled groans of someone roused from sleep. Chieko herself opened the door, dressed in nothing but a nightgown and a very displeased expression. And silver pearl earrings that glittered unnaturally bright in her ears.

    “What is it, Morgan? It’s three am— Jesus, what _happened?”_

  I actually stared at her. That’s all, I just glared at her. I’d been thinking about all the shit I would’ve said, all the things she did, but actually standing in front of her, my mouth clamped shut and I couldn’t manage jack.

    “…Morgan…?” she asked uneasily, growing nervous. “What is it?”

    “Why’d you steal from us?” I managed at last.

  She paled. “I-I don’t know what you mean—”

    “Yeah, you do though? The Cerith shipment from this morning? Remember that?”

    “What—”

    “You sent your kitsune to handle it, right? That’s what you need the Cerith for, or some shit like that?”

    “…Who told you that?”

    “Doesn’t fucking matter. I know it’s true.”

  She sighed, long and hard, but she seemed more annoyed than upset or guilty. “You weren’t supposed to find out.”

    “What?” I said slowly. Why didn’t she seem more… apologetic?

    “It was supposed to be just something small, something to blend in with all the other little things I’ve burrowed in the past. You weren’t supposed to notice—how did you find out?”

  I was too stunned, too shocked by how nonchalant she was to put any real thought into my answer besides the truth. “I smelled it, smelled the Cerith on you. I went through your things… Found the stash.”

  She nodded. “That’s a shame, Morgan. You have a sharp nose. What about the kitsune, how’d you find out about them?”

  It isn’t that I was being compliant, but I felt the need to answer her. “One tried to run away, but I caught her. We fought until she coughed up information.”

    “Oh?” Chieko asked, impressed. “You not only held your own against a kitsune, but you forced her to submit to you? I’m more surprised than impressed, to be honest. What has Killian been feeding you?” She giggled, a strange girly laugh that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

  Why the hell did I just say all that?

    “Hey, don’t just fucking laugh this off, you betrayed us—”

    “Calm down, Morgan.”

  And just like that, I was calm.

All the anger simply bled out of me in an instant, leaving me feeling numb, but not displeased. What was I angry about again?

  Oh yeah.

    “What the fuck?” I shook my head vigorously, like I was physically trying to dust away the cobwebs.

    “Hmm,” Chieko murmured keenly. “You’re strong enough to just… _shake off_ the hypnosis? Now I actually am impressed.”

  What? Hypnosis? I knew I should’ve taken out that copyright claim when I had the chance. “Hypnosis?” I asked distractedly. My brain was telling me to calm down, but all I wanted to do was stay angry. I had a reason to be angry.

  Didn’t I?

    “Yes, hypnosis. Listen, Morgan, you’re my nephew, and I love you very much, but I think it’s time I left. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.

    “I think it’s best if you go to sleep.”

  And so I did.

 

 

  I’ve just decided being hypnotised really sucks (go figure).

The moment her voice hit my ears, I was dead. I blacked out, just like that. If it weren’t in these circumstances, I’d actually be grateful for the chance of restful sleep. As it was, I was fucking pissed instead.

  I woke up, not knowing how long had passed, sprawled in the middle of the hallway, Kaidyn snoring happily away next to me (he’d have loved that if he was awake). My glasses had slipped off on my way to the floor, so I scrambled through my severely blurred vision for what I figured were the frames. Having found them and in the process smudged the lenses ( _tch),_ I perched them on the bridge of my nose and went to assess the rest of the damage.

  It was worse than I thought.

 _Everyone_ was asleep. I went back into Chieko’s room to found Sera snoring on the mattress, none the wiser. Looks like she really _wasn’t_ involved with Chieko’s elaborate plan. That’s gonna suck ass once she finds out, dammit.

  Besides Sera, it was the most quiet I’d ever seen the _Akatsuki_ base. Everyone was snoring peacefully right in the middle of whatever they’d been doing before the mass hypnosis. Whether it was in the middle of a pool game, lying around in the lounge, or even if they were right in the middle of taking a dump, no one was spared. For whatever reason, I was the first one to recover.

  As I perused the blatant parade of embarrassing positions that seriously required the use of a camera, what I really wanted to know was how Chieko had done such a thing. The main thing I noticed was that everyone had been relaxed before they’d fallen asleep; no one seemed alarmed in the least. They had to have all gone to sleep at once, or else things would look at least a little chaotic. How had Chieko pulled it off? When she told me to sleep, was she somehow able to tell… the entire base?

  But that’s impossible…

  For a human.

 

  I finally made my way down to the _Akatsuki_ storage level, where we kept most of our artillery and surplus. Just the same as the few levels above, everyone here was also asleep, trapped in their various positions of relaxation.

  Ah, thought so.

Looking into the storage shelves, I found just about what I’d expected.

  Every last crate of Cerith had been taken.

  What an absolute bitch.

 

  Despite everything, I hadn’t actually tried to wake anyone up. I had a bad feeling, so I’d put it off.

  Evidently, that was for good reason.

Going up the first person I saw—an _Akatsuki_ member whom I was thirty percent sure was named Jo, or John, or Joseph or something—I first shook his shoulder vigorously, shouting his name (probably his name) into his ear as loudly as I could. He didn’t wake up.

  I shook him a little more vigorously, but that still didn’t rouse him from sleep. If it did, though, he’d probably have a concussion. I left him there, and moved on to another sleeping member, then another, then another one after that.

  All the same; no matter how hard I tried, no one woke up.

Not even their thoughts registered my presence; it was crossing the threshold from bizarre into panic-inducing. I went back upstairs, trying Kaidyn. No such luck. Not all members of the _Akatsuki_ were necessarily human; we had plenty of demons, monsters, you name it. But not even they opened their eyes. I at least thought were-bear Kaidyn would’ve woken up, but nope.

  Why was I the only one awake?

In a brief flare of panic, I went to check on my younger brother, Erin. He was sleeping in the middle of his bed peacefully, just like everybody else, dressed in these spider-man pj’s he knows I absolutely loathe (I fucking hate Peter Parker; don’t ask). It was eerie seeing him sleeping there; he looked so much like me when I was his age it was creepy, although his hair was brown and his sleeping eyes were green. He’s always been so small, so fragile and gentle to me… Like he was just extremely delicate glass waiting to be broken by the world.

  Dammit, fuck those stupid kitsune, fuck stupid Chieko, fucking… Dammit.

How could she do this to her own family?

  The sound of tripping feet downstairs caught my attention. It was pretty far off, but with everyone sleeping in the building, there were less things to district from my hearing. I took off after the source of the noise, glancing back at Erin briefly before closing his bedroom door and leaping down the staircase to the lower levels. I was downstairs and in the hallway facing the ballroom just in time to see a person hopping from foot-to-foot, swearing at their own feet.

  The figure glanced up slowly as they realised I was there.

  It was the fox girl.


	7. Now You're Thinking With Portals

****

    “…You…!” I growled (I know that wasn’t very imaginative; you’ll be surprised at what little you’ll come up with when faced with the person that stabbed you twice).

  She held her hands in front of her, the universal gesture for ‘Please don’t hurt me!’ “Look, I’m not here to hurt you—”

  I snorted. “Really? Could’ve fooled me before. Why are you here? Chieko sent you to clean up?”

    “…What? No? Clean up? What do you mean?” She was genuinely puzzled.

    “…Chieko… Didn’t send you? Why the hell are you here then?”

    “I followed _you_ , moron. Even if you are her nephew, you were pissed enough to make me worry for the master’s safety. It took me a little time to recover, and by the time I got here, everyone was asleep. This is the master’s work, isn’t it?”

    “Yeah, no shit,” I answered angrily, going to lean against the door beside the ballroom. “No one’s woken up, except me.”

  The girl stiffened. “Like, no one at all?”

  I glared at her as an answer.

    “…Are you sure?” Her tone was raising alarm bells in my head, her heart hammering just a smidge faster than before.

  I nodded slowly. “Just me. I tried everyone… Not even my brother woke up.”

  She looked down uneasily, suddenly unable to look me in the eyes. It took her a moment, but she finally answered, “They probably… won’t wake up at all.”

  What.

  No.

  No way…

Before I could register I’d even moved, I was grabbing her shirt and dragging her towards me, my body burning with an untameable anger. “What do you mean?”

  She didn’t flinch. “She probably didn’t mean to do it on purpose, but she can’t help it. It’s happened in the past, where she used her powers on a scale like this, making everyone around her sleep. _That_ group of people… it took them _months_ before they opened their eyes, and it was only some… of them.”

  I let her go slowly, mind reeling. “…What… ‘powers’?”

  She looked away once again, her mouth clamping shut.

    “What powers?!” I yelled as I grabbed her shoulders.

    “She’s… the master is… She’s possessed by a kitsune.”

 

    So many things came to mind—thought after thought, word after word, chasing and colliding with each other like water over rocks. But the one thing that stood out:

  Why?

I hadn’t even realised I’d said it out loud when the girl had started answering.

    “…We kitsune, were on our own. Our numbers were dwindling, we were about to become extinct in our world when… Chieko, and _Aohi_ found us, took us in. Our leader, though, she couldn’t… Exist in this world, anymore. In a physical form. She’s old, even for us, and sooner or later, she was just going to give up living. But Chieko, she—she let her in, let her possess her, _gave_ her a physical form. For that, we’re forever grateful, y’know? We’re indebted to her for saving us, and our master—”

    “I don’t care.”

  She flinched, but, true to word I really didn’t give a shit. “I don’t want to know. I want to know why she betrayed her own family for some bullshit demons. Why she kept it a secret. Why she felt the _need_ to—”

  I stopped myself before I could take it further. Anger, rage… They didn’t help. I took a deep, albeit shaky breath instead.

    “If you’d let me finish—Though Chieko is, for the most part, in control, sometimes that fox part of her can take over. It can… manipulate her, make her forget things, or do things contradictory to what she actually wants.”

    “And you all just… _let_ that happen?” I said slowly, grounding the words between my teeth.

  She sighed. “You might not understand, but it’s for the best of my people.”

    “Yeah, you’re right; I don’t fucking understand. That’s why you’re gonna’ take me to her.”

    “…Huh?”

  Yeah, I just decided.

  No, I never really had a choice to start with, did I?

I thought; I had a gut feeling that it’d come to this. That I’d have to confront her in this way. Talking didn’t work; I hadn’t even gotten the chance. It would come down to force, then.

    “You’ll take me to her. That fox lady or whatever, she’s bound to know a way to wake them up.”

    “Y-Yeah, probably, but— You can’t just… You can’t!”

  I looked at her, deep into her narrowed golden eyes. “What’s your name?”

    “H-Hanami,” she stammered, caught off-guard.

  A familiar feeling tightened deep in my belly. “Hanami,” I began slowly, my eyes softening. “Take me to where Chieko is, please.”

  Her eyes glazed over, her expression growing slack. In a voice not quite her own, she answered, “Sure thing.”

 

  I hate doing this.

I hate it so fucking much, especially since it was just used on _me_ a moment ago, but… what else can I do? I know I said before I didn’t think I could compel her, but… I wasn’t as pissed as I am now, not so on-edge as I’m feeling in this moment.

  You know, I’ve been told… so many times, by vampires and monsters and demons so much stronger than I ever thought I could be… That I’m a monster. That I’m the ancestor of a horrible, beastly woman capable of bringing death to even the strongest of the supernatural.

  Fuck man, how is that supposed to make me feel? How can I live with _that_ kind of stigma over my head?

  How can I make it right? Make my very _existence_ good?

How can I be the good-guy when I’m like this? When it’s in my very _nature_ to want to hurt, to harm—to cause terror in those around me and delight in it. And trust me, I might not say it, but deep down, in a small, dark little part of me, I do enjoy it. A little part of me actually _liked_ having the fox girl, Hanami, fall to me so easily despite how well she decked me before. Just how fucked up is that?

  God-fucking dammit, just what am I supposed to do now—

 

  Hanami tugged at my shoulder lightly, then took off in the direction of the elevators.

  Alright. That’s enough.

It’s unhealthy and a dumb thing to do, but I imagined taking my feelings, squishing them into a little paper ball, and throwing them off the balcony.

  Wiping my bloody eyes, I followed Hanami to the elevators.

 

***

 

  We walked silently through deserted, darkened streets, the cool night air, not yet touched by summer, the only noise for the entire journey. Hanami was just as silent; apparently my compulsion had rid her of her snarky attitude as well as her will. Sucks to be her.

  Not being able to portal to the place (if I didn’t know where it is, I couldn’t picture it to go through the portal and follow Hanami) left us with a potentially lengthy walk. I could _not_ survive that without at least a little conversation.

    “Hanami,”

    “Hmm?” she answered back listlessly.

    “Tell me about yourself.”

    “No.”

  I was, understandably, a little taken aback. “Why…not?”

    “I don’t want to.”

  And that was the end of that. Jokes; I was still curious why that didn’t work, so, naturally, I tried something else. “If I told you to jump off the tallest building you could find, would you do it?”

    “No, obviously.” A slight hint of annoyance crept into her voice.

    “And if I said to do a backflip, right here, would you do it?”

    “Gimme’ fifty cen, then we’ll see.” Her voice was nearly back to the way it was when I first met her. _Nearly—_ it still had a strange, lifeless quality about it, like she wasn’t totally invested in the conversation.

    “You _are_ taking me to see Chieko, right?” I asked a little shakily. What if she said no? What if she’d somehow broken through my compulsion?

    “Yeah, duh. Because you told me to.” The tone of annoyance gone, her voice once again took on that dreamy, half-asleep quality she had from before. Huh. So compulsion works… on just the one thing I tell her to do? Man, I need more practice with this.

 

  We chatted idly from there, just small-talk really while we navigated the vast roads leading from the 21st precinct to wherever Hanami was taking me. Thankfully, we ran into no-one, but even if we did, I could probably just pass off Hanami as my girlfriend or something. _Oh my god,_ what if I actually _run into my girlfriend?_ Nah, that’s dumb; she’s at work right now, sure, but she wouldn’t _leave—_

    “Here.”

  Hanami stopped abruptly, breaking my (extremely stupid) train of thought. We’d stopped in front of a tiny old store, wedged in tight by newer, taller shops on either side. Though it looked like an ordinary old little store, it was still ambiguous enough that I wasn’t entirely sure exactly what it sold. Is that a desk? A mannequin? An aquarium? We just don’t know for sure. Hanami didn’t seem as shocked by the place; she just walked right up to the door, painted in faded green, peeling paint, and pulled it open with a _tinkle_ of a bell. She beckoned with a hand after I didn’t move immediately.

    “Chieko’s in here?” I whispered into the night.

  She didn’t answer, only nodding and indicating me to come in more aggressively. With a shrug, I followed her into the musty store.

  It was just as much a mystery on the inside than from the front. A seemingly random array of… _stuff_ littered the place from top to bottom, nothing in correlation with the thing beside it. It was like being inside a fancy junkyard. And the _smell—_ do _not_ get me started on that dusty, horrible odour that felt like I had my head stuck inside a grandma’s antique cabinet (no offense to grandmas. Or antique cabinets). Hanami wasn’t in the least perturbed; she walked across the creaky wooden floor without a second glance, then went down a tiny flight of rickety old stairs to the bottom floor. A stairwell, mind you, that was probably made for Christmas elves. I had to duck and pull in my shoulders and arms just to fit down there. With a few grunts and ‘ow’s’ as I hit my head on the ceiling a couple of times, I slowly made my way down the steps to where Hanami waited below.

    “Jesus, you guys couldn’t’ve gotten a bigger stair…case…”

 

  The bottom level, lit only by a single swaying lamp from the ceiling, illuminated a massive silver safe door on the opposite side of the room. It was like those kinds you see in the films, where robbers use elaborate and ridiculous methods to crack into. Hanami didn’t need any of that, apparently. She spun the massive handle, without using a key or code or anything, then pulled the door open, groaning slightly with the weight.

  Oh.

A strong feeling of unease twisted in my gut, a static-y feeling of electricity raised goosebumps on my arms and the back of my neck.

  Glittering purple from behind the bulk of the door, its surface rippling like the rolling of clouds, was the unmistakable pulse of a portal.


	8. Final Boss and I'm Low on Health

****

  I stood there for so long, Hanami actually looked concerned.

    “Hey man, you okay? It’s just a portal...”

  No, it wasn’t, trust me.

  It felt… wrong. Twisted. It wasn’t made the same as all the other portals across the city; this one was probably manufactured by _Aohi,_ or Chieko herself. It had a presence; a physical energy that felt nearly… _evil._ Yeah, that sounds pretty dramatic, but I can’t put it any other way; I literally felt _malice_ rolling off of it in waves. If I had to equate it to anything, it’d probably be like the difference between buying a burger from a nice little home-owned business, and one from McDonalds. The home-owned one is probably more expensive, but it tastes better and isn’t as detrimental to your health. McDonalds, on the other hand, is corporate hell dressed up in a clown suit—cheaper, everywhere, and closing little businesses like killing flies. Was that a terrible metaphor? Probably. But you get what I mean.

  The portal was a fabricated copy of the hundreds of portals lining the city, and probably cost little to make.

  It was also the door Hanami was urging me to walk through.

    “Where does this go, exactly?”

    “…Lyn City.”

Should’ve seen that coming. Why _wouldn’t_ Chieko set up a private portal to her home base in Lyn City? We _are_ criminals after all; doesn’t matter how illegal cross-city portals are. Wonder if Sera knows about this?

  I nodded to Hanami, then grabbed her hand and passed through the portal without a second thought.

 

 

  Fair to say, the passage nearly made me puke.

A great lesson: always buy organic. Support your local small businesses. Also, don’t use illegally made portals.

I was too winded by the portal to realise where it led to. That would prove to be a grave error on my part, since it landed us right in the middle of _Aohi’s_ storage level.

  The place actually looked a lot like our own (makes sense, seeing as how we’re both from the same Yakuza family. I’m still getting used to that), a high-ceilinged, dimly-lit warehouse-like storage facility packed with crates, shelves, ammunition and all manner of surplus under the sun. Thankfully, only one member of _Aohi_ seemed to be present; a sullen-looking guy stacking crates in a corner. He glanced up at us slowly, at first surprised, then growing sullen once again as he noticed Hanami. He didn’t seem at all shocked to see me.

    “Brought another guy, Hana? You know Chieko doesn’t like you bringing your fuckboys through the portal.”

Hanami’s face darkened. “My— _what?_ Excuse me, that was _one time,_ and this isn’t some fuckboy, this is Chieko’s—”

Releasing her hand, I burst forward as fast as I could and grabbed the guy’s neck in one hand and hoisted him up the wall where he was stacking crates. He let out a surprised yelp. Even though I wasn’t squeezing particularly hard, he still struggled like his life depended upon it, letting out little gasps as he grabbed feebly at my arms.

    “I’m not gonna… hurt you!” I managed between his struggles. He stopped struggling, but still whimpered a little.

    “Oi!” Hanami shouted from behind me. She grabbed my shoulders, tugging me back, and I let go of the guy. He slid to the floor, grasping his neck. “You didn’t need to do that,” she continued.

  Now that I think about it, I probably… didn’t? I got confused for a second, okay? I didn’t want her telling him I was Chieko’s nephew, so I did the first thing that came to mind. And the first thing that came to mind was stupid.

  I turned around and grasped Hanami’s shoulders, so tiny in my hands, and said, “You won’t tell anyone who or what I am.”

Her will was so broken she couldn’t even speak; she just nodded slowly by way of answer. I was getting better at mind-controlling, but… is that a good thing?

  The guy whimpered when I knelt down across from him, but I looked him deep in the eyes anyway, and told him to forget about everything that’s happened for the past twenty minutes and take a little nap. He fell asleep straight after the words left my mouth. It reminded me eerily of Chieko, and how easily she put me to sleep. That wasn’t a nice thought.

    “C’mon.”

  Hanami nodded, then took the lead as she guided me out from the storage level. The rest of the building seemed strangely utilitarian, like a spaceship straight out of a sci-fi videogame. Simple, grey-metal floors and ceilings lined the place, reinforced windows the only indication that no, we were not in a spaceship. What I saw instead was just as surprising, though.

 

  Ever since I was a kid, it was always a dream of mine to visit Lyn City. So close to Jotai City, yet so far in the eyes of a child, it was about as far away to me as a separate dimension. Seeing it then, through that tiny window, was pretty surreal.

  We were hundreds, if not _thousands_ of feet from the ground, just a flat expense of white far below. Metal spires of grey crawled like veins into the sky, each spire connected to yet more columns, and connecting to even greater buildings of all shapes and sizes. Everything was interwoven and connected to each other, a vast network of man-made wonder that, even from my tiny vantage point, sprawled with life and electricity. Flying airships, spaceships and vehicles served as quick transport around the skies rather than portals (why use portals and waste the opportunity to _fly)._ Glowing crystals of various sizes and colours dotted the buildings here and there, magical buffers used to keep the city afloat.

  An entire city, an entire _world,_ all suspended in the sky.

  I had my nose and palms pressed against the glass when Hanami finally interrupted me.

    “Yeah, everyone’s like that at first.”

  I peeled my eyes away from the landscape with difficulty. “At first? You get _bored_ of…this?” I gestured widely at the window.

Hanami sighed, like a mom and her ten-year-old son. “Do you want me to take you to Chieko, or not?”

  I coughed. “Erm, yes, of course, yeah. Let’s go.”

With all the excitement of my childhood dream coming true, I’d very nearly forgotten what I was here for. Gloom descended once again once I realised this probably wasn’t going to end well.

  Hanami continued leading me through the hallways and rooms of _Aohi._ The place was a maze, really; without Hanami’s help, I probably wouldn’t _ever_ have found Chieko, and the _Akatsuki_ would’ve been left comatose for the rest of their lives.

  Occasionally members would ask her what the deal was with me, but she surprisingly played it off pretty well. She’d answer with things like ‘Oh, he’s my boyfriend’ or ‘He’s just a friend’, but for the most part, the rest of _Aohi_ seemed to know Hanami well enough that bringing strange boys back to base was a common occurrence, apparently. She once asked another member where Chieko was, just for confirmation, in a pretty smooth exchange. It was nearly weird how smooth everything was running. I’m starting to get a bad feeling.

  Besides the spaceship feeling, the building had the vibe of a massive military base/family hotel with an overall Japanese theme. Whilst some rooms were clearly tailored for gang business—filled with weapons, walls covered in papers detailing who-knows, mounds of cash and drugs and a wide range of illegally-acquired stuff—others were made for entertainment and living quarters. It didn’t have the casino-feeling that my place had, but it was still pretty impressive nonetheless.

  And, of course, there were the kitsune.

They were set a little apart from the other members of _Aohi,_ whether that was intentional or not, I couldn’t be sure. The women—since male kitsune was non-existent—carried themselves with a different air to the humans and other creatures around them. I’d go so far as to say they had completely different _auras_ around themselves, too, but that might just be my imagination. With their sharp, cunning eyes, and ethereal beauty, it didn’t matter how enveloped within a crowd they were, I could pick them out straight away.

  That, and each and every one of them wore pearl earrings.

Like Hanami, for every kitsune with pearl earrings on, I couldn’t hear her thoughts. Not one whisper. This didn’t especially surprise me, but it did make me feel uncomfortable. If they surrounded me, could I fight them without knowing their intentions? Can they... _sense_ what I am? I just don’t know.

 

  Crossing the hallway leading from a massive entertainment complex filled with flashing lights, beeping and general chaos that nearly made me drool like I was a kid again, Hanami led me to a huge glass elevator that dominated the end of the hallway. The walls leading to the elevator were made of the same glass, the metal city beyond laid bare. I nearly got vertigo as we crossed the hallway, but I can’t deny it was an amazing sight. Just wished I’d brought my phone with me.

  We boarded the elevator, and Hanami pressed a sleek silver button slightly larger than the others. The elevator smoothly glided upwards, and I took the opportunity to think about what to do next.

  Chieko was possessed by a kitsune, or something, that much was certain. I didn’t even _want_ the Cerith back, I just wanted my family and friends to wake up, so that’s top-priority here. But what the hell can I do to convince her to wake them up? How will she treat _me?_ Fuck, she could probably just as easily put me to sleep again and send me on my way through the portal back to Jotai City… Or kill me. Not that I know if I even _can_ die anymore, but still…

If it came to an all-out fight, how am I supposed to fight my own _aunt?_

  The glass doors of the elevator slid open, the opaque glass revealing a vast room beyond.

 

  It had the feeling of an office and a penthouse all at once. There was a business-like atmosphere, but no desks or anything office-like in the vicinity at all. Instead, the other side of the room was obscured by a massive paper screen, and beyond that a soft glow. The curtains on the opposite side of the room were drawn tightly against the night sky, casting the rest of the room beyond the warm light into inky blackness. My eyes could pierce the darkness easily enough, but the overall effect was disconcerting. Out of nowhere Hanami violently dragged me ahead. I was going to resist but, I was curious to why she was doing it. She pulled me around the screen and shoved me forward.

  Chieko was kneeling on a mat in the middle of the floor, dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono (at least, that’s what I thought it was. I’d only ever seen them in anime, so don’t judge), staring absently into a flickering candle on the small table in front of her.

    “Here. I brought you to her, now don’t _ever_ make me do that again,” Hanami sneered. She was pissed as hell. Guess on the homestretch of her mission, she’d finally gotten control of herself.

  She stared imploringly at the unmoved Chieko. “He’s… he’s a… _He’s a—”_

  Hanami choked on her words over and over, but no matter how much effort she put into them, she just couldn’t spit it out. “I don’t— I don’t get it, I can’t say it! Boss, your ne— _Dammit!”_ She fell to her knees on the right side of the table next to Chieko, exasperated.

  Finally, Chieko slowly lifted her head.

 

  She looked at Hanami for a while without meeting my eyes.

God, how did I not realise it? Those eyes, though they weren’t gold like Hanami’s, were just as shrewd and inhuman, just as cold and calculating as a snake’s. Or a fox.

Which reminds me; I was getting a serious case of the sniffles. But I was on an important mission; I won’t let allergies defeat me. After several tense seconds of oppressive silence as Chieko gazed at Hanami, her eyes suddenly snapped toward mine, narrowing. I couldn’t help it, it scared the crap outta me—I flinched.

    “What did you do to her?” she asked in a voice so icy I immediately broke into a cold sweat.

    “N-nothing…you wouldn’t do yourself.” I attempted to steel my own voice, but it was hard. Something about Chieko was… downright terrifying. She was as cold and strong as steel, and had a crackling aura around her that made me sick. She was so much… _stronger_ than I was, and my body was physically telling me that.

  She reminded me… of her.

  Of the woman that made me into this.

Yeah, _that’s_ what it was, I realise it now. Whatever kitsune was possessing Chieko, was just as old and powerful as Rafaella is.

    “…What does that mean?” she asked.

    “Wake them up,” I dodged shamelessly. “Wake up my dad, and my brother.”

  Chieko stared at me with those fox eyes, before asking, “How did _you_ wake up so quickly? Yes, I know, but _what?”_ This second part she seemed to reply to a conversation only she could hear.

    “I’m… um… Hypnosis doesn’t… work well on me.”

  Hanami was glaring daggers at me. I’ll admit it was a pretty terrible lie, especially considering lying was once my forte ( _is_ that something to be proud of?), but Chieko’s very presence unnerved me like you wouldn’t believe. She was somehow worse than dad, and he made me squirm like I was five-years-old every time I did something where there was even a _chance_ he wouldn’t approve.

    “Sit down.”

  And I sat down. Before I could even register I was doing it, I was kneeling on the mat opposite her.

I stiffened. “How’re you… doing that?”

    “The hypnosis? Hana, dear, fetch us some tea?” She barely flicked her eyes in Hanami’s direction. With one final glare at me, she left the room via a hidden door off to the side.

    “Yeah… that.”

    “I’m a kitsune, Morgan. Well, _possessed_ by one, anyway.”

  It was a question I hadn’t really meant to ask, but luckily she thought I meant how she was doing hypnosis in general, and not why it was working so well on _me._

    “Oh,” I feigned. “But why _us?_ Why betray your family?”

    “Betray?!” she actually giggled, like an anime villain. It was terrifying as fuck; this was the second time in my life I had heard her laugh. “My dear, is _that_ what you think that was? I was just taking advantage of a small little transaction is all. _Akatsuki_ once belonged to us, after all; don’t you think you owe it to us?”

  I couldn’t tell if this was what Chieko was really thinking, or if this was the kitsune talking. “But why go to all the trouble? If you wanted Cerith so bad, why not just…ask?”

  She sighed. “Morgan, we’ve been doing this for _years.”_

  You ever so mad and surprised you actually feel ringing in your ears? This was one of those times.

    “ _What?_ But—huh?”

    “Yes, we’ve been taking things here and there from different gangs and mobs for years. _Akatsuki_ just happened to be in the right place at the right time for us. And you… just happened to be in the _wrong_ place at the _wrong_ time.”

  My skin began to burn, my face boiling up with feverish heat.

    “But why did you… put _everyone_ to sleep…?”

    “…That was an accident. But are they dead? No. If you pulled through, there’s a good chance the rest of _Akatsuki_ might, too.”

    “Do you… even _care?”_

  I was deprived of an answer when Hanami returned, tray in hand. She placed two mugs filled with steaming green tea on the table, mine a little more forcefully, then retreated to a corner. Chieko took hers into her palms quickly, blowing the steam as she lovingly smelled the aroma. Totally oblivious, and totally without a care in the world.

  It was probably hot, but I downed the tea in three quick gulps and slammed the cup down. It tasted bitter and awful, just about what I’d expected.

    “Well?” I prompted. “Do you even give a shit that you’ve put several of your family to sleep, and they probably won’t wake up ever again?”

  She glanced up from her tea, irritated. “Morgan, I told you. If you can wake up from it, then there’s every chance they will—”

    “They’re not like me!” I stood up so hastily I flipped the little table over.

It should’ve crashed into Chieko, but the table… stopped in mid-air?

  I was too stunned to stay angry.

Several seconds passed, and the table was gently placed back in the middle of the floor.

  Tails.

Four massive, fluffy-white tails extended from behind Chieko, gently holding the little table in place.


	9. This Isn't Even…My Final Form

 

The tails silently hovered behind her as her face darkened.

    “What do you mean, ‘not like me’?”

  With the rustle of fabric, five more tails emerged from the folds of Chieko’s kimono, joining the first four. Despite their size and bulk, they managed to stay perfectly and gracefully poised around Chieko’s tiny frame. You have to wonder; where the heck was she hiding those up till now?

    “Tell me what you mean,” she continued.

  Oh man, did I want to. It was right there on the tip of my tongue; I’d never been tempted to do something as badly as I wanted to tell her right then and there. More so than the hunger, more so than the need for violence, more so than the crippling thirst, was the urge to tell her this one little thing—

  Wait.

  What the… hell?

 I don’t need to tell her shit. Actually, it’d be better if I didn’t, the fuck outta here.

  A smile, more a grin really, slipped its way across my lips. “No.”

    “…No?” she repeated slowly, bewildered.

    “Yeah, you heard. You can’t control me, what’re you gonna’ do about it?” And she actually couldn’t; it took way too long for my body to get used to it, but the familiarity of it, the energy of her hypnosis… I’d gotten used to it. Gotten _over_ it, like getting over a virus.

  But I didn’t have time to celebrate.

Quicker than lightning, her nine tails flashed all around me, forming a deadly cage. Even though I hadn’t seen them in action yet, I had no doubt those tails could probably do some serious damage, so I stayed perfectly still and stared her down instead.

    “You wouldn’t kill your own nephew?” I asked coldly.

  A pang of unease twisted my gut as it took her far too long to answer, “…No. I would not.”

 _Whoa_ shit, abort mission, abort!

So quickly even I didn’t have time to move, her tails whipped across my limbs, grabbing my arms and legs, and wrapping around my throat. Even then, she still had four tails free to wreak damage. The tails tightened across my skin as she hoisted me completely off the ground and into the air and pulled me toward her. I let out an involuntary gasp.

  I struggled, but it wasn’t like I could go anywhere. I had nothing free to break her grip.

    “No, I won’t _kill_ you, Morgan. But death isn’t the worst thing you can do to a person.”

  The areas where her tails were touching my skin were beginning to itch and burn, either a severe allergic reaction, or she was slowly electrocuting me, I couldn’t tell. Either way, it hurt, and I was running low on ideas.

    “Auntie, you wouldn’t do that, would you?” I actually pleaded. Not my best moment, but shit man, what else could I do? “I’m Eriko’s son, your _sister’s_ son! I’m not your enemy, auntie. Please…”

  The tails wavered, if just a fraction, Chieko’s eyes softening. Then they tensed, and all the warmth from her eyes evaporated.

    “Tell me what you meant!” She was trying to glamour me, but I won’t let myself be hypnotised again.

    “Please, let me go, auntie.” Disguised as a plea, my stomach twisted familiarly as I attempted to compel her, pleading with her narrowed eyes.

  She actually hesitated. But just like before, it was only for a fraction of a second, then it was gone. Whatever kitsune was possessing her, it was so powerful it was able to withstand compulsion without even being subjected to it, like I needed to.

  How can I beat something like that?

    “I know, but he won’t _say…!”_ Chieko was once again having a one-sided conversation. Now that I think about it, was she talking to the kitsune? Or was the kitsune the one in control talking to Chieko?

  Either way, I _had_ to find a way to rid us both of this demon.

    “I can’t… but that might just do it.”

    “Gonna… tickle me to death…?” I gasped as the tail around my neck grew tighter.

   Her voice grew deeper, more sinister—nothing like the soft, regal tone of Chieko. _“No…_ Are you aware of _kitsunebi?_ Of fox-fire?” She drew me closer to her, her malevolently twisted face inches from mine. “It’s a supernatural flame that I conjure… It’s terribly lethal, and I’ve heard, unbelievably painful to the human touch.”

  A spark of turquoise fire burst into life in her outstretched palm, a smile spreading across Chieko’s face as the flames danced over her twisted features.

    “It doesn’t burn your skin… It burns your _soul.”_

  She brought the flame close to my cheek, the fire not touching the skin but hovering dangerously close. Despite my tolerance toward heat, and that I just downed a cup of steaming tea without feeling a thing, this fire… _burned._ It wasn’t even touching my skin, but it felt like tendrils of fire were dancing across my skin and smouldering down into my muscles.

  I couldn’t help it… I screamed.

Just a short howl that made my throat feel raw, before Chieko pulled her hand away. I tried struggling once again at the tails clamped around my limbs, but it was useless. Chieko was enjoying herself, but she wouldn’t get so careless so as to let me escape.

    “Now, sweet little nephew, tell me what you meant? How’re you… _different_ to everyone else at Akatsuki?”

The blue ball of flame flickered wickedly in her palm.

  Fucking hell… Dammit… Shit motherfucking fuck shit. What do I do? _What do I—_

Hanami.

She was still standing off to the side, disinterested as she watched the whole scene. She could’ve cared at least _a little,_ but whatever; she’s my only hope out of this.

    “I… I’m—” I glanced at Hanami, “— _SAVE ME, FOX LADY!”_

  Hanami’s face grew blank. She rushed forward and slammed the wooden tray in her hands across the back of Chieko’s head. The tray shattered in her hands, but that was all the distraction I needed. It worked, thank god.

  Chieko’s tails grew slack, and I took the opportunity to force my way out of her grip. I had nowhere to run to, though, and I still wasn’t finished here...

  With a groan, I leapt at Chieko and forced her to the ground, pinning her down with my body close to hers. She wouldn’t dare attack me with her tails this close. Hopefully.

    “H-Hanami!” I cried.

  Her face was red with anger, but she made the mistake of turning back to face me.

    “Her weakness! Gimme something!”

  Hanami’s face slackened once again as the compulsion took hold. “Earrings…” she said slowly.

  Got it.

With a quick ‘sorry’ and a spurt of red, I tore the earrings out from Chieko’s ears.

 

  The tails dropped to the ground like they’d suddenly run out of batteries, her body relaxing.

    _—let him go! You’ll kill him!_

_He’s a liability anyway, Chieko. Grow up._

_That’s my_ nephew, _Tamamo!_

 _You think this… this_ thing _is still your nephew?! He obviously isn’t human. You can_ smell _it as well as I—_

_I’m not strictly human either, but—_

_Don’t try that with me—_

  Oh-oh.

I was rooted to the spot as Chieko and the kitsune, Tamamo, argued ( _extremely_ loudly), shocked by the sudden explosion of voices in my skull.

  But I think… they noticed.

Hastily scrambling to stand, I stepped away from Chieko as fast as I could without falling over, nearly tripping over the little table in the middle of the floor as I did so. Her mind was eerily quiet, and she watched my every move with cold, empty eyes. I think I pissed her off.

    _…don’t hurt him,_ Chieko whispered, her mental voice weak.

    “Shut up!”

  Tamamo leapt to her feet and angrily stepped forward, her body changing with every step she took.

It was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. And it was downright terrifying.

  In one step her features lengthened, her cheeks grew higher, her eyes more catlike. In another, claws sprouted from her fingertips, and a grotesque smile twisting across her face revealed two frightening rows of fangs. In the last step, her ears were replaced by cat’s ears, and her inky black hair turned white, like a ripple of fresh colour across water. Red, vulpine eyes gleamed through the dimness of the room.

  I took a step back, nearly tripping on the mat behind me. “W-why grandma, what big ears you have…!”

  She snarled, which I rightly deserved.

    “Give those earrings back, boy,” she growled.

    _Need them, need them back…! If he_ ruins _them—_

Holding the pearls tightly in my hands, I shook my fists at Tamamo. “What do you need them for? Are they… important or something?”

    “Stop that! You’ll damage them!” She actually leapt at me, without using her tails or anything.

  I lifted my arms up, high above her head, and she jumped up to try and snatch the pearls from my grip. If her nails weren’t grazing my hand and actually leaving gauges in the skin, I’d be laughing.

    “What do you need them for, huh?! I’ll break ‘em if you don’t—”

    “ _Don’t you dare!”_

 On one hand, I think she finally realised she had nine deadly tails she could use to her advantage.

  On the other hand, this also meant I was totally fucked.

 

  Never… never in my entire _life_ have I felt something like this.

It wasn’t pain, not at first anyway. I was shocked more than anything else. I dropped the pearls, too, but that was really the least of my worries. It was like, one of those moments where time slows down, where you can see every minute detail, where nothing feels real and you think to yourself, ‘This isn’t real, right? I’m imagining this, I’m dreaming…’

  I can tell you now, I wasn’t dreaming.

  She stabbed me.

Not a little ‘oh, that’s unfortunate’ kind of stab, either.

  Three of those white tails swam before my eyes, piercing through my gut and, presumably—since I’d lost feeling by then—out the other side.

  A fountain of murky, blackish blood sprayed from between my lips. I couldn’t take a breath, couldn’t draw any air between my teeth. My throat was tight, my body feverish and shivering with cold all at once. It was like a system meltdown; my body simply didn’t know what to do.

    _“What have I—”_

_What have you—_

_“Done?!”_

_Done?!_

The wail of both Chieko and Tamamo’s voices tore through my skull, but it was a distant feeling. I was beginning to lose way too much feeling, both in my body and senses.

  With a gasp of horror, Tamamo pulled the tails free of my spine and stomach. Boy, that didn’t feel great either. Distantly I felt myself howl in pain and fall to the ground, but I was already passing out by the time it registered.

  I lost consciousness to Tamamo (or Chieko, I couldn’t be sure) murmuring apologies through tear-stained eyes.


	10. Mighty Convenient Exposition Chapter: GO!

****

  _“Wake up.”_

  I gasped, gulping down great mouthfuls of air I really didn’t need. It made me feel better though, lessened the strange ache in my stomach by a fraction, so I did it like my life depended on it.

    _“You’ve been asleep for a while, Morgan.”_

  This…wasn’t…

I glanced around for the first time, taking in my surroundings.

  I was… I was in the dining hall, back at home. But… everything was wrong. The wallpaper was peeling of the walls, and was covered in a thick layer of dust. The chandelier dangled haphazardly on just one of its wires from the ceiling, swaying to and fro in an unseen breeze with a gentle tinkling of glass. All the tables and chairs were in shambles, shattered by some mysterious force into pieces and left to linger in the corners of the massive hall.

  How did I get here?

    _“You never really left.”_

  With a soft cry, I whipped my head around to face a voice that sounded far too close, far too intimate, like it was right beside my ear.

  It was her.

  Who else could it have been?

Rafaella sat, legs crossed, in a chair a ways a way, the only chair in the dining hall that wasn’t in pieces. She was the same as I remembered her in my half-recalled human memories—a red, ballroom gown torn along the side, showing the deep, honey-coloured skin underneath. Black tendrils of hair held high in a ponytail above her head, she peered down at me from heavy-lidded ruby eyes, eerily the same colour as mine, even before I was turned.

    _“Had a bit of an accident…?”_

Her rich, husky voice sent a shiver down my spine. I actually glanced down at my pants—naturally, I was dressed in the things I died in: black trousers and a red dress-shirt; of course—before I remembered what had happened before I’d fallen asleep.

    _“I guess…”_

  She made an indignant noise, then lightly stepped up from her chair and came to sit next to me. I was too petrified to make a move.

    _“She stabbed you through like a shish kebab.”_ It was almost funny hearing her say that with her South-American accent. Almost. I was still too terrified to say much. I nodded instead.

    _“You know, I’ve dealt with the kitsune a few times before.”_

My eyes widened before I could stop them.

    _“Yes, it was a while ago, but I still remember. Not rival gangs, exactly, but sometimes we can’t help but cross each other. Part of the business of being both gang families, and supernatural creatures. They always wore those ridiculous pearl earrings… so gaudy. But apparently it’s the source of their life force, their strength. Smash them and… they lose the power to take physical form, and might just…”_

_“Might just…?” I interrupted before I could stop myself._

_“…Die.”_

Silence. It was a pretty jaw-dropping statement. If I smashed Tamamo’s pearls, would Chieko die?

    _“No, she wouldn’t,”_ Rafaella answered. Of course she could hear my thoughts. She was my progenitor, after all.

    _“How do you know?”_ I wasn’t about to take her at her word.

_“Experience. Tamamo is old, even by kitsune standards. If she hasn’t totally become a spirit already, she’s bound to make the transition soon. You could… help her with that.”_

_“Wouldn’t that kill her, though?”_

_“…Yes. But if she dies, every spell cast by her will disappear as well.”_

_“My dad…my brother… Kaidyn? They’d all wake up?”_

_“And everyone else under her spell, yes.”_

It almost sounded too easy. I should’ve smashed the pearls when I had the chance, thinking back. But something still felt…off.

    _“Are you sure, even with Tamamo still in Chieko’s body, it won’t hurt her?”_

Rafaella turned to me slowly, her usually perfect poker face tightening. _“…It probably would. Tamamo seems to have a strong hold on your aunt’s body—”_

_“Then I won’t do it!”_

Rafaella’s eyes widened, surprised. She glanced around the empty room, as though something caught her eye, but I didn’t hear anything.

    _“What?”_ I asked, impatient.

    _“I don’t… I don’t think you have to worry about that, anyway.”_

 _“And what does_ that _mean?”_

She stood suddenly, and I stepped back in surprise. _“It means this.”_

She was so fast, so much faster than anything I could manage.

  Rafaella first grabbed my cheeks and pecked me quickly on the lips…

                                                      …then snapped my neck.


	11. Final Chapter: Garnet, Amethyst and—OH MY GOD, PEARL…!

This time I was gasping for air for real.

It didn’t feel nearly as nice compared to that weird… dream? Vision? Was I losing it? I dunno, but the dream-Rafaella really helped me out, so it couldn’t’ve been all bad. Probably.

  I coughed, over and over, each breath drawing blood trapped in my throat and windpipe and hacking it onto the floor. My throat felt raw and irritated, and my body was beyond feverish with heat. With a cry, I leaped up as I finally remembered the full extent of my injuries.

  There was… nothing.

Patting the hole through my shirt, there was only smooth—albeit burning hot—skin underneath.

    “Huh…” I said involuntarily.

    “Y-y-you…”

    “?”

    “You’re alive…?”

Once again, I fail to actually look at my surroundings until it was too late. That could _really_ endanger me in the future, y’know?

  I was back in the penthouse/office suit of _Aohi’s_ building. Apparently I just straight up passed-out after that hole shish kebab ordeal, cause I was still in the last place I remember before falling asleep. That, and Chieko was kneeling in front of me, crying her eyes out. Not surprising, considering she practically killed her nephew.

  What had me sitting up and pulling my lips over my teeth in an involuntary snarl was the massive _thing_ hovering just behind her.

Before I realised it, I was on my feet in a slight crouch, hands claws at my sides and a low growl straight up slipping between my teeth. Fangs fully extended, I guess it was the _Vorvintti_ version of having your hackles raised and being on guard.

  It was Tamamo, I figured, but it was her true form. A hulking beast of a fox—more like a fox beefed up on steroids or something— glared down at me through glowing red eyes. Though it had the general shape of a human, it was decidedly a beast covered in fur, rippling with muscle, and boasting glistening, long black claws. Its nine tails whipped about its huge form in violent twirls of white, just a reminder of how deadly they were. Despite how truly frightening and intimidating the spectre was, that was just what it was— a ghost. A spirit. The edges of the demon were faded, see-through, especially the end of its tails. It had no legs, the torso simply faded into nothing the closer it got to Chieko’s back.

  In this form… it might not even be able to hurt me.

  I glanced at the pearls, still in their place where I dropped them on the floor. Tamamo probably saw me looking, because she shrieked in a definitely non-feminine growl before she whipped her claws through the air in desperation.

    “Don’t touch those!”

  She tried to swipe at me, but her claws just passed through me leaving a spine-chilling cold that made me shiver.

I felt my eyes narrow, my lips still pulled over my teeth in a sneer as I picked up the pearls.

  With only a slight squeeze, I crushed one.

 

  Tamamo screamed.

Howled, shrieked, whatever; it was an ear-piercing noise that I swear rattled the reinforced windows. Before our eyes her form… diminished. Fur fell from her body like it was being blown back with a fierce gale, fading into nothing behind her. What was left was a small woman, the same size as Chieko, covered head-to-toe in white fur with cat ears and nine slim tails. She breathed heavily against the ground, and struggled to get up, as though she were in great pain.

  Chieko tried to help her up, but the fox woman was simply a ghost; she passed right through her fingers like water.

    “Chie…” she managed to stammer. “Stop him, don’t let him kill me. He’ll do it, he’ll do it…”

  Her voice turned into a whisper as she slowly lost the strength to speak. Chieko turned back to me slowly, tears still falling from her eyes.

    “Morgan… how did you—how did you survive?”

Tamamo struggled to sit up once again. “He’s not human, Chie. He’s… not your nephew anymore. A monster…”

She fell back to the ground again, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

This was getting old, fast.

  I held the second pearl tightly in my fist. “I’m the monster? I didn’t put my family to sleep. I didn’t… _steal_ from them, either!”

My voice rising, I was getting dangerously close to crushing the second pearl.

  Chieko’s shoulders heaved as she began to cry. That only made me angrier.

    “Dammit! What am I supposed to do? _What the hell am I supposed to do?!”_

Before I registered I was doing it, I had the pearl held above my head as if I was gonna throw it. With a sigh and a rush of steam from between my lips, I slowly put my shaking arm down.

  Was this the right thing… to do?

    “…That damn _Vorvintti…”_ Tamamo wheezed, her eyes closed. “Always getting in the middle of my plans, even when it’s not on purpose.”

    _I didn’t want this…_ Chieko thought to herself. _I didn’t want_ any _of it. Dammit, I should never have— no, it’s not Tamamo’s fault. It’s mine._

    _Oi…_ The voice was unmistakably Tamamo’s. It was different to Chieko’s, different to any human’s I’ve ever heard. It was a rustle and a roar all at once; it had power and age behind it that didn’t match Tamamo’s current form. _I know you can hear me._

“What?” I said out loud. Chieko looked at me briefly, but she was too distraught to think much of it.

    _What is she thinking? She cast me out when she thought I killed you, so I wouldn’t know._

“…She blames herself,” I began slowly. “She didn’t want any of it, but she isn’t blaming you.”

  Chieko glanced up in surprise, her tears forgotten. “How do you know…?”

    _Yeah, that’s about right. It isn’t her fault—_

“No shit.”

    _—I was gonna say, it’s mine. I got desperate… I’m dying._

“…I know,” I said after a moment.

  Chieko glanced from me to Tamamo slowly, piecing it together.

    _After it was obvious that, despite gaining my ninth tail, I wasn’t going to becoming a god like the other kitsune before me, I got… desperate. If I don’t become a god, what now? I latched on to the first soul I could find that would except me, and now, look where that’s gotten me._

“…Can you wake up my family, or not?”

 I wasn’t sympathetic. We all have our sad sob story—my family was in some kind of forever-sleep, and I had the _one_ cure struggling for every breath in front of me.

  I’d be damned if I let a chance like this slip by because I was too weak to deal with it.

    _…You’re a tough one, you know that? No, I can’t wake them up. But I’m guessing you already knew that._

“I did.”

    _Humph._

I don’t know how she accomplished that with her mind, but I was impressed.

    _You aren’t going to back down on this, are you?_

“No, I’m not.”

    _…Just as monstrous as that viper, Rafaella, I see._

_The forbidden apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, my dear._

    With a flick of my wrist, I crushed the second pearl into dust.

  I told you this wouldn’t end well.

 

  Just like the pinkish powder of the pearl, Tamamo’s body disappeared with a sigh on the wind.

Chieko didn’t even have time to stop me; there was no way she could’ve known. She screamed, pained and horrified, as her body shuddered with ugly tears.

  My own eyes were completely dry.

 

  She cried and cried, but I didn’t move. Couldn’t move, really; my body had decided it had had enough, and was completely numb, both physically and mentally. Hanami came to comfort Chieko instead, though she was crying heavily herself. She had just lost her leader, after all.

    “At least tell her how,” Hanami growled, her voice shaking with anger.

  It was difficult to move the words passed my lips; my throat was smouldering with heat, my tongue dry. “Tell her how what?”

    “What you are. How you survived.”

  And in a voice that was my own but not, I told my aunt everything.

 

  She’d guessed pretty much guessed most of it: that I wasn’t human, that I was telepathic—Tamamo was a pretty good source of information in that regard.

  I couldn’t exactly gauge how she felt about any of it (even in her own mind, she was vague), but she didn’t seem… to hate me. For some reason that was a great big load off my shoulders, knowing she didn’t hate me.

  But it was necessary, wasn’t it?

 

  Holy shit, the base!


End file.
